Bush's Medicare and Medicaid Cuts
Rising health care costs are the root cause for the financial obstacles we need to address when taking a look at Medicare and Medicaid. Instead of addressing the issue, however, President Bush has simply proposed $101 billion in cuts to the popular programs over five years. According to the president of the American Health Care Association, the Bush plan will take a toll on health-care providers and their ability to look after their patients.
Others see the proposals as likely to do more harm than good, and many congressional Democrats have accused Bush of trying to pay for the Iraq war and his signature tax cuts by reducing health care for elderly and poor Americans."There are problems in terms of future financing of Medicare, and those need to be dealt with in a comprehensive way," said Charles N. Kahn III, president of the Federation of American Hospitals. "To think we're going to solve all those problems by simply saying, 'We're not going to pay those who provide service what we need to pay them' is more than problematic. . . . This has more to do with the balanced budget and other things than it does with the preservation of Medicare."
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said the Bush plan does nothing to address the underlying causes of the financial woes of Medicare and Medicaid -- rising health-care costs.
The article also points out that "the problem was made worse when the GOP-controlled Congress added a prescription drug benefit in 2003, which is expected to cost $38 billion this year." The reason for the high costs? The Republican leadership refuses to allow Medicare to use its purchasing power to negotiate for lower drug prices.
House Democrats already passed a bill to change this, and the president is threatening to veto the bill. It's time to start tackling the issue of rising health-care costs that the Republican Congress ignored.
