These cuts would be in addition to the cuts proposed in the Medicare Advantage market (and proposed tax increases) which combined totalled $600 Billion over 10 years. Here is a breakdown of the proposed cuts over the next 10 years:
- $110 Billion from reducing scheduled increases in Medicare Payments. I’m presuming here he’s talking about Medicare Providers’ Fee Schedules. Based in the Deficit Reduction Act of 1997, Medicare Physicians are looking at a mandated 21% cut in their Fee schedule for 2010, but I believe that President Obama’s budget proposal contemplated a “fix” for this, legislatively. These statements seem to be opposing one another, unless I’m missing something.
- $106 Billion in payments to hospitals to treat uninsured patients. This is assuming the uninsured ranks would decline as Healthcare reforms are phased in.
- $75 Billion from “better pricing for Medicare drugs”. This would signal changes to the Medicare Part D benefit (or, at a minimum, a Federal system of negotiating with the Pharmaceutical companies.)
- $22 Billion in smaller reforms.
Look for Hospitals, Big Pharma and the AMA to oppose these cuts. In addition, these cuts would excelerate the “cost shifting” from Public Insurance to Private Insurance which would make Private Insurance less affordable (reimbursements to Medical Providers are approximately 25% higher for Private Insurance than for Government-run Insurance, like Medicare.)
