The Medicare Debacle By Dr. Evelyn Higgins

On July 1 the government slashed Medicare physician payments by 10.6 percent. Has the cost of overhead gone down? The answer is no. So how can this be? What will this do to an already burdened, dysfunctional system? Let's start with the fact that the Medicare system is not doing business with other parts of healthcare in the same manner. Only the physicians - those who actually treat the patients - are being unjustly harmed. Medicare, in fact, gives payment increases to the insurance industry, nursing homes and hospitals. The reality of this disastrous decision is that approximately 60 percent of Medicare doctors would be forced to limit the number of new Medicare patients they would accept and treat. More than half of the doctors said they would need to cut staff as a result, and 14 percent say they would quit practice all together due to the inability to profit. A bill that would buy time for a realistic long-term solution to the problem between Washington and the medical community has been passed by Congress. Now it's time for the Senate to act swiftly to consider the same legislation. [more...]