The Docs Can’t “Waite” On This One

This New York Times story tells us that the House is trying to block a cut in Medicare reim- bursements to doctors set to take effect on July 1st, with increases scheduled to be paid to private Medicare providers instead, “insurers like Humana, UnitedHealth and many Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies,” as the Times tells us…

Besides blocking the cut in doctors’ fees scheduled to occur next week, the bill would increase Medicare payments to doctors by 1.1 percent next year. Under current law, doctors face another cut of about 10 percent in January, because of a complex formula that reduces payments when spending would otherwise exceed certain goals.

And as you might expect, it faces the inevitable veto threat from President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History (and now at a 23 percent favorability rating here; still waiting for that “Broder bounce”).

Mr. Bush cited these cuts (to the providers) as a major reason for his veto threat. He said the bill would “reduce access, benefits and choices” for older Americans.

Based on this about the Medicare drug card fiasco, I think Dubya only cares about “access, benefits and choices” for his buds in the health insurance racket in this country (with Humana, United Health Care and many others making the list).

And here’s even more of a reason to stop funding these characters and help out the doctors instead…

More than 10 million of the 44 million Medicare beneficiaries are in private Medicare Advantage plans. Many of these plans offer extra benefits not available in traditional Medicare. But many studies have found that the private plans cost the government more per person than the traditional program.

The Times continues…

Representative Lois Capps, Democrat of California, said: “The alternative to this bill is a 10 percent pay cut for doctors who serve seniors and those with disabilities. Our doctors are desperate for this. It’s emergency care.”

But Republicans from Florida, Tennessee and Texas said their constituents supported the Medicare Advantage program. “It’s a good program that helps many low-income seniors,” said Representative Ginny Brown-Waite, Republican of Florida. “Why does the Democrat Party want to do away with it? Shame, shame, shame.”

Gee, Ms. Brown-Waite, why then does the Republic Party want to keep forking over money to its corporate benefactors who don’t need it while doctors continue to go under? Between a cut in reimbursements and increases in liability insurance, how many more ways are we going to screw over our physicians?

And this led me to do a little checking on Ms.Brown-Waite, and as Wikipedia tells us here, during the course of her victorious campaign against Dem Karen Thurman in 2002, Brown-Waite’s husband was caught stealing Thurman campaign lawn signs (nice). She also referred to Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme” (I’ll cut her a break, though, and note that she helped to break the Mark Foley scandal).

However, as St. Petersburg Times writer John Frank tells us here, she called residents of Puerto Rico and Guam “foreign citizens” (residents of Puerto Rico were granted U.S. citizenship in 1971 and Guam 1950, as Frank notes).

Frank continues…

It's not the first time Brown-Waite has broadly miscast a group. In 2003, she angered French officials and some constituents when she proposed a bill to allow families to bring home to "patriotic soil" the remains of fallen soldiers buried in France and Belgium. The move came amid the height of the anti-French sentiment for that country's stance against the Iraq war.

And in 2006, Brown-Waite refused to condemn the comments of a prominent constituent who called Islam a "hateful, frightening religion."

Shame, shame, shame…