Medicare cuts again as Super Committee (read disengaged politicians) agrees to inaction!

Super committee failure leaves Medicare pay cuts in place

Deficit panel inaction will trigger a $1.2 trillion federal spending reduction that could cut Medicare pay even more starting in 2013.

By Charles Fiegl, amednews staff. Posted Nov. 21, 2011.

Washington -- Roughly $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts over 10 years will hit federal programs, including Medicare, after lawmakers on a special 12-person bipartisan deficit reduction committee failed to develop a consensus plan.

Leaders of the Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction announced on Nov. 21 that they would not be able to reach an agreement on a spending cut plan by the Nov. 23 deadline set by Congress. Organized medicine had hoped the committee would strike a deal that not only met the panel's minimum goal but that also fixed the long-term physician payment problems plaguing the Medicare program. Its failure means that unless lawmakers act to change the outcome, the sustainable growth rate formula will cut physician pay by 27.4% in 2012 and by an additional amount in 2013, and the automatic spending cuts will decrease pay even further starting in 2013.

American Medical Association President Peter W. Carmel, MD, said lawmakers on the committee missed a unique opportunity to fix the SGR formula, avoid further cuts to doctors and preserve beneficiary access to care.

"The failure of the deficit committee forces our nation to continue on an unsustainable path that puts current and future generations of Americans at risk for harsh consequences," Dr. Carmel said. "Congress set up processes and procedures that could have charted a course to put our nation's fiscal house in order. The stalemate in the deficit committee will trigger robotic, across-the-board spending cuts, which will not address critical structural problems in the federal budget."

Congress had created the panel, which many dubbed the super committee, as part of an agreement to raise the federal debt ceiling in August. The Budget Control Act gave the committee the task to develop a plan to reduce budget deficits by at least $1.2 trillion between 2012 and 2021. Failing to agree on any plan would trigger 10-year spending cuts equal to $1.2 trillion starting in fiscal 2013, divided roughly equally between defense spending and nondefense spending.

The act specifically exempted Medicare patient benefits from being impacted by the automatic spending cuts, meaning that Medicare pay to health professionals would be on the chopping block. The statute does cap the amount of cuts from Medicare as a whole to 2% per year, amounting to a $123 billion decrease in program spending over the decade, according to a Sept. 12 Congressional Budget Office report.

The projected effect of the automatic cuts on physician pay is not yet known. The White House would determine proportional budgetary reductions annually, and the president then would order the necessary cuts, according to the CBO. Congress could vote to roll back some or all of the automatic reductions contained in the budget act's fail-safe mechanism, and some lawmakers indicated that they might attempt to do that for certain defense spending and other priorities. But President Obama warned Congress against trying to escape its budgetary responsibilities and the White House indicated that he would be willing to veto such legislation.

Meanwhile, the federal government avoided its latest shutdown on Nov. 18 as Obama signed legislation to keep federal agencies funded through Dec. 16. Another appropriations bill would be needed to fund the government after that date.

Millions lose Employer-Sponsored Healthcare (Since Obamacare). That means they won't be coming to see the doctor!

Since Obamacare’s Passage, Millions Have Lost Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance

4:42 PM, Nov 11, 2011 • By JEFFREY H. ANDERSON

Throughout the Obamacare debate, President Obama repeatedly promised, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” Now, Gallup reports that from the first quarter of 2010 (when Obama signed Obamacare into law) to the third quarter of this year, 2 percent of American adults lost their employer sponsored health insurance. In other words, about 4.5 million Americans lost their employer-sponsored insurance over a span of just 18 months.

This is not what the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) had predicted would happen. Rather, the CBO had predicted that Obamacare would increase the number of people with employer-sponsored insurance by now. It had predicted that, under Obamacare, 6 million more Americans would have employer-sponsored insurance in 2011 than in 2010 (see table 4, which shows the CBO’s projected increase of 3 million under (pre-Obamacare) current law and an additional 3 million under Obamacare). So the CBO’s rosy projections for Obamacare (and even these paint a frightening picture) are already proving false.

Whether the decline in employer-sponsored insurance over the past 18 months is a product of Obamacare or of the Obama economy — and whether Obamacare is the principal cause of the anemic performance of the Obama economy — can be debated. But what’s clear is that, more than 25 months before Obamacare would really go into effect — if it’s not repealed first — employers are already dropping employees from their insurance rolls.

Take Walmart, for example — a prominent Obamacare supporter. Gallup writes,

“The nation's largest private employer, Wal-Mart, announced in October that new part-time employees who work less than an average of 24 hours a week would no longer be able to get their health insurance from the company. Wal-Mart laid out several other cuts to its health insurance offerings, including some workers’ ability get coverage for their spouses. Other companies have already made and will likely continue to make similar changes to their health insurance benefits….

“If Wal-Mart's decision is a precursor of how employers intend to manage their healthcare costs, the downward trend in employer-based healthcare will likely continue.”

So in addition to costing about $2.5 trillion over its real first decade (2014 to 2023), looting nearly $1 trillion from Medicare over that time (according to the CBO), forcing Americans to buy government-approved health insurance under penalty of law, and amassing unprecedented power and money in Washington at the expense of Americans’ liberty — if Obamacare stays on the books, you may like your health care plan, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you can keep your health care plan.

It’s time to repeal Obamacare.

H/T The Weekly Stantard

Obama to cut Physician Pay by 50 percent! Big Physician Pay Cuts Coming!

The worst fears about Obamacare are now being realized in a decision on Monday by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MPAC) established by the law to supervise $500 billion in Medicare cuts. MPAC, whose decisions have the force of law, has voted to impose drastic pay cuts on all doctors under Medicare and, by extension, under Medicaid (which tends to follow suit). The cuts will effectively reduce the real pay for specialists by 50% over the next ten years — including a 25% reduction over the next three years — and cut general practitioners’ pay by one-third over ten years (and that assumes that inflation stays down at 3% a year).

MPAC has ruled that specialists must accept a 6% cut in their fees per year for each of the next three years followed by a seven year freeze in their fees without any adjustment for inflation. If inflation stays very low — at 3% per year — this cut amounts to an 18% cut in nominal pay and a 50% cut in real pay for specialists. General practitioners will face a ten year freeze on their pay, reducing their real compensation by one-third assuming ongoing low inflation. Higher inflation, of course, would make the cuts in real pay even more drastic.
The consequences of the MPAC decision will be immediate and drastic:
* Many physicians, and many more specialists, will refuse to treat Medicare patients. It will become very, very difficult to see a cardiologist or an oncologist or a gastroenterologist or OB-GYN specialist if you are on Medicare unless you are willing to pay out of pocket or have the kind of health insurance coverage from a private source that would reimburse for their care.
* More and more medical care will be turned over to nurses or physician assistants, and fewer people will ever get to see a doctor on Medicare.
* Private health insurers will follow in the footsteps of the Medicare program and likely slash their fees as well.
* Fewer students will enter medicine, and a major shortage of doctors will reduce the quality of medical care in America drastically.
The MPAC cuts will bring American doctors’ incomes more into line with European doctors who typically earn half or less of what their American counterparts earn — and deliver worse medical care as a result.

Hat tip to Dick Morris & Eileen McGann