-Caveat Lector- Now the Republicans also want to reform Social Security. That means cutting benefits while sending the new 'recipients' to fend for themselves in the stock market while stealing their benefits to be 'converted' into general tax revenue.
Sounds like a Bushie idea to me. Like the way JFK replaced silver money with cheap metal clad crap. The he got us into the Vietnam War bigtime and yet he was a 'social reformer' with socialist welfare program and other governmnet ripoffs. Now GW Bush has duped conservatives like Nixon and then Regan. I think it is time for a big change. (If Planet X hits or changes humanities viewpoints, then all bet's are off, Jebby Boy...) --SW ------- Forwarded message follows ------- To: Ameri-Advocate <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: ellis smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: IUFO: Merry xmas ffrom rep party-your doc wont see u now Date sent: Sat, 21 Dec 2002 23:49:01 -0800 (PST) Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Medicare to Cut Payments to Doctors 4.4% By ROBERT PEAR WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 � The Bush administration announced today that Medicare payments to doctors would be cut 4.4 percent next year, after a 5.4 percent cut this year. Federal officials predicted that doctors would, as a result, be less willing to accept new Medicare patients. If the cuts are not reversed, Congress and the administration will face the wrath of two politically potent constituencies, elderly voters and doctors who care for the elderly. But administration officials are desperately trying to control federal health costs, which they see as a major factor that contributes to federal budget deficits. Doctors, outraged at the cuts, faulted both Congress and the administration for failing to avert the cuts, which start on March 1. Dr. Mark H. Krotowski, a family doctor in a working-class neighborhood of Brooklyn, said: "The new cuts will force more physicians to turn away Medicare patients. That's the reality. Doctors will not have any incentive to accept new Medicare patients. While Medicare reimbursements are going down, our expenses are rising 5 percent to 10 percent a year." The Department of Health and Human Services said the cuts might "cause fewer physicians to accept new Medicare patients" and could prompt doctors to increase their charges to some of the 40 million Medicare beneficiaries. Dr. Jos� V. Angel, president of the Iowa Medical Society, said, "Elderly and disabled patients will have to wait longer and travel farther to see doctors." Doctors said the existing payment rates were already too low to cover the costs of caring for the elderly. "Physicians cannot afford to treat Medicare patients" under the new rates, said Dr. James C. Martin, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Thomas A. Scully, administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said he was making the cuts reluctantly. "The reduction in physician fee schedule rates results from a formula specified in the Medicare law, and we believe that formula is flawed and must be fixed," Mr. Scully said. "Although Congress considered several options for fixing the fee schedule formula for 2003, and the House actually passed a bill to address these issues, no final action was taken before Congress adjourned." The administration announced the cuts in issuing the Medicare doctors' fee schedule for 2003. It specifies the amounts paid to doctors for more than 7,000 services and procedures from routine office visits to complex surgical procedures. Next year, Medicare is widely expected to pay $45 billion to more than 750,000 doctors and other practitioners. Mr. Scully said that if the formula accurately reflected doctors' costs, they would receive a 1.6 percent increase next year, rather than a 4.4 percent cut. Congress should "fix the formula," he said. But that was not always the position of the administration. In his budget request in February, President Bush assumed that Medicare payments to doctors would be reduced next year and did not offer any proposal to stop the cuts. Then in March, the administration told Congress that any infusion of new money into Medicare should be used for prescription drug benefits, "not for increasing payments to fee-for-service Medicare providers." In the last few months, scores of lawmakers have called for an increase in Medicare payments to doctors. But some members of both parties insisted that if doctors received an increase, then Congress should also raise Medicare payments to hospitals, nursing homes and health maintenance organizations, and such changes would have greatly increased the cost of any legislation. John C. Rother, policy director of AARP, said the cuts in Medicare payments to doctors were "an unintended consequence" of the payment formula. "Congress should correct it as soon as possible," Mr. Rother said. "We are getting complaints that it's becoming difficult for Medicare beneficiaries to find a doctor willing to accept them in some parts of the country. We don't want that problem to spread." Under the formula for paying doctors, spending increases with Medicare enrollment and economic growth, among other factors. Doctors say they have been shortchanged for several years because the government underestimated economic growth in the late 1990's and the number of people who would be in the Medicare fee-for-service program. While acknowledging the errors, administration officials said they did not have the legal authority to correct them. Dr. Yank D. Coble Jr., president of the American Medical Association, said he hoped that patients would join doctors in lobbying Congress to "fix this Medicare debacle." Representative Bill Thomas, a California Republican who is chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said: "I am deeply troubled by these successive and significant cuts to physicians who serve Medicare beneficiaries. I remain committed to addressing this issue and reforming Medicare when Congress reconvenes." ------- End of forwarded message ------- "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." -GW Bush during a photo-op with Congressional leaders on 12/18/2000. As broadcast on CNN and available in transcript on their website http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0012/18/nd.01.html Steve Wingate, Webmaster ANOMALOUS IMAGES AND UFO FILES http://www.anomalous-images.com <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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