President Obama's proposal for potential cuts to Medicare and Medicaid as a means of paying for his recent jobs plan and paring down the deficit have drawn ire from fellow Democrats and the hospital industry, according to a New York Times report.
Last week, President Obama said he would use a variety of measures to pay for his new $450 billion jobs plan, including trimming Medicare and Medicaid and deepening cuts in long-term spending that would be chosen by the debt reduction Congressional committee.
President Obama has yet to set forth details of his proposal for deficit reduction, which he already confirmed would include additional healthcare cuts in some form. The plan is expected to be presented next week to the debt reduction committee.
The discussion of even more cuts to federal healthcare programs is worrisome for hospitals, which have already agreed to $155 billion in Medicare reimbursement cuts over 10 years under President Obama's healthcare reform law.
Paul Levy, former president and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, calls into question the true impact of decreased spending in healthcare programs on the country's deficit crisis, reiterating, as he has done once before on his blog, "reductions in appropriations might reduce costs to the federal government, but they do not reduce the underlying costs of care," he says.
Mr. Levy highlighted the irony of President Obama's push for both Medicare and Medicaid cuts and his jobs creation proposal.
Last week, President Obama said he would use a variety of measures to pay for his new $450 billion jobs plan, including trimming Medicare and Medicaid and deepening cuts in long-term spending that would be chosen by the debt reduction Congressional committee.
President Obama has yet to set forth details of his proposal for deficit reduction, which he already confirmed would include additional healthcare cuts in some form. The plan is expected to be presented next week to the debt reduction committee.
The discussion of even more cuts to federal healthcare programs is worrisome for hospitals, which have already agreed to $155 billion in Medicare reimbursement cuts over 10 years under President Obama's healthcare reform law.
Paul Levy, former president and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, calls into question the true impact of decreased spending in healthcare programs on the country's deficit crisis, reiterating, as he has done once before on his blog, "reductions in appropriations might reduce costs to the federal government, but they do not reduce the underlying costs of care," he says.
Mr. Levy highlighted the irony of President Obama's push for both Medicare and Medicaid cuts and his jobs creation proposal.
The head of the New York Hospital Association explains [in the New York Times piece]:
Further cuts in the growth of Medicare and Medicaid would not only impair access to care, but also lead to job loss in the health care industry, directly contravening the president’s goal of job creation.
I have made this point, too:
With 50% of American hospitals operating at a deficit right now, it is hard to imagine how a reduction in federal payments . . . deals with the cost problem.