Originally posted by lfquade
I am looking for something about it being passed, but nothing yet. Whether it was/wasn't pass doesn't matter, its what he is planning on doing. The state is Kansas, if that will help?
I am impressed, you went and found proof
I would propose that this proposed lowering of allowable costs in medicare is an economic one. Allow me to explain.
In the free market system of economics the price a good or service is set by supply Vs. demand. Short supply=higher price. High demand=higher price. This works with almost every good or service with the exception of services provided by the "medical industrial complex". By it's nature they experience very little competition, thus having a monopoly. When is the last time you saw an add in the paper for a sale on MRI's? Do you bargain shop for transfusions? No, it is the one industry that gives very little or no control to the consumer. Your doctor orders it, you go do it whereever he schedules it to be done no questions.
Now Nanny Pam has in her signature line that 47.2% of statistics are made up on the spot. I have no clue what percentage of medical proceedures are paid for by medicare but I would wager it is a significant percentage. The "medical industrial complex" has been setting it's prices unchallenged for years. The only pressure that it has had is from insurance companies looking to control costs. Because there has been no substatial effors to control costs the prices for proceedures has risen astronomically.
Now if you gave me $20 and sent me to buy you some stuff, lets say shrimp for a party of 10 people. I took your money and instead of making a good choice and buying the right size shrimp to make have enough for the 10 people, I spent your $20 on the most expensive shrimp I saw and end up not having nearly enough for everyone. You would be mad that I didn't respect you enough to spend your $20 wisely.
This is the same situation we have with the government and medicare. They are analyzing the market place and instead of just paying whatever inflated price the hospital decides to charge they try to lower the costs by forcing the hospitals to take what is fair. The government does this by reducing what is an allowable charge. Since there is NO competition the only way to influence the market thus reducing the price for medical service. Any economist will tell you if you are trying to sell a $100 gizmo in a $20 market you will fold up and go broke.
Another point is this; If you take accounting in college you will learn that EVERY company estimates a percentage of sales that will never be collected. One of the reasons that hospitals charge higher prices is because they know that 3 out of 10 will never pay their bills. They take the losses that they project and add it to the bills of others, namely medicare because the government ALWAYS pays.
I am not saying that the proposed changes are the greatest, BUT I expect the government as the steward of my taxes to make wise informed choices on how it is spent and not just go willy nilly writing checks for whatever some hospital charges. This is what they are doing. They are looking into what it costs the hospitals, and offering a reasonable charge allowance.
There will be people who don't get everything they want or need but it is better to cover "most" of the needs of "most" of the people, than "all" of the needs of "some" of the people. It makes me sad when I hear people b!tching about the $360 per year lifeline that was not covered and not show any thankfullness about the $10,000 in medicines and proceedures that were covered.