Medicare

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Medicare, Social Security Will Go Bust Sooner

(Newser) - The recession has hurt the already-shaky finances of Medicare and Social Security, the Washington Post reports. Medicare is now projected to run out of money in 2017, two years earlier than the last projection. Social Security, meanwhile, is expected to be insolvent in 2037, four years earlier. The annual report...

It's Time for 'The Talk' About Rationing Care
It's Time for 'The Talk' About Rationing Care
OPINION
May 8, 2009 1:10 PM CDT

It's Time for 'The Talk' About Rationing Care

At end of life, openness reduces stress for all: Goodman

(Newser) - Two weeks before she died, Barack Obama’s terminally ill grandmother had a hip replacement. Obama said he’d have paid for the operation, but questioned whether society should have to. “I think you just get into some very difficult moral issues,” he said. But maybe morality and...

Obama's Secret Plan to Control Your Healthcare
Obama's Secret Plan to Control Your Healthcare
OPINION
Apr 24, 2009 1:48 PM CDT

Obama's Secret Plan to Control Your Healthcare

President serves candy now, spinach later: Krauthammer

(Newser) - President Obama is going to need more than a “cash-cow carbon tax” to fund his goals of “nationalized health care” and “federalized education,” writes Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post. Obama’s going to have to slash Social Security and Medicare. But his current health plan...

GOP Pushes Budget With Tax Cuts, $500B Deficit

Alternative budget overhauls Medicare but repeals Obama spending

(Newser) - House Republicans are pushing an alternative budget plan that would cut income tax rates and radically overhaul Medicare, the AP reports. The plan unveiled today by Paul Ryan of Wisconsin also freezes overall spending on domestic programs and repeals most of the spending in President Obama's recently passed economic stimulus...

Seeking Surgery at 80? You're Not Alone

Operations on elderly patients raise questions about aggressive treatments

(Newser) - Folks over 80 are increasingly going under the knife despite critics who say it's unethical or financially perilous, the Sacramento Bee reports. New medical technology has persuaded doctors to violate tradition and perform operations like cancer and open-heart surgery on octogenarians. But one doctor has sparked controversy by saying patients...

Obama Vows Social Security, Medicare Reform
Obama Vows Social Security, Medicare Reform
Interview
Jan 16, 2009 8:05 AM CST

Obama Vows Social Security, Medicare Reform

Will hold summit to hash out ways to rein in spending

(Newser) - Barack Obama promised major overhauls for the country’s ever-growing entitlement programs yesterday in a wide-ranging interview with the Washington Post. We have “kicked this can down the road,” Obama said. “We are now at the end of the road.” Obama will hold a “fiscal...

Obama Targets Social Security, Medicare

Faced with trillion-dollar deficit, president-elect vows reform, trims

(Newser) - In his first foray into the hazardous terrain of entitlement programs, Barack Obama said yesterday that his administration would overhaul Social Security and Medicare to clamp down on government spending. At a news conference and in a subsequent interview with the New York Times, the president-elect said, "If we...

Daschle Will Play Hardball on Health Reform

Incoming HHS Secretary will avoid Hillary's pitfalls

(Newser) - Tom Daschle, Barack Obama's incoming Director of Health and Human Services, has an aggressive strategy for reforming health care, and no intentions of seeing it fizzle the way the Clintons' efforts did in 1993, reports the Los Angeles Times. The key will be reeling in major health-care interest groups, along...

Big Pharma Seeks Big Profits in Developing Nations

Drug Makers See Future in New Markets

(Newser) - The pharmaceutical industry is turning away from the US shores that helped fill its pockets and toward the developing world, the Economist reports. Massive growth has made markets like India and China too attractive to ignore, despite lower income levels and weaker patent laws. And many companies fear Barack Obama's...

Senate Dem Unveils Broad Health Reform

Baucus proposal would guarantee insurance for all citizens

(Newser) - Barack Obama made health care reform a key plank of his campaign, but even before he's been inaugurated Congressional Democrats are introducing legislation to transform the system. Leading the charge is Max Baucus, the Montana senator who leads the finance committee. His plan, which he'll introduce today, guarantees health insurance...

Pinched Patients Skimping on Vital Medication

Docs warn trend could cause health care time bomb

(Newser) - Cash-strapped consumers nationwide are risking their health by cutting back on prescription drugs, the New York Times reports. Some try to stretch out their supply by splitting their pills in half or taking them every other day. Others choose for themselves which medications to stop taking, increasing the chances of...

Prospect of 'McCaincare' Terrifies Krugman
Prospect of 'McCaincare' Terrifies Krugman
OPINION
Oct 6, 2008 2:31 PM CDT

Prospect of 'McCaincare' Terrifies Krugman

Republican's plan spells free-market catastrophe for the sick and poor

(Newser) - John McCain’s health care plan seems designed for “comforting the comfortable while afflicting the afflicted,” writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times. McCain “wants to blow up the current system” by junking the tax break for employer-provided insurance. To compensate for the lost insurance, McCain...

McCain Health Plan Would Shrink Medicare, Medicaid

Cuts would help fund tax credits for buying care on open market

(Newser) - John McCain’s health care plan, based on tax credits, would be funded by cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, which analysts say could amount to some $1.3 trillion over a decade. The move would allow McCain to uphold his pledge of a “budget neutral” health strategy, the Wall ...

Medicare Fudged Fraud Figures: Report

Claims to have cut bogus charges overstated

(Newser) - Medicare's boasts of having reduced fraud by billions are misleading, a draft report obtained by the New York Times finds. Auditors were told to ignore procedures that would have accurately measured fraudulent claims for medical equipment, the draft report says.   Proper methods would have revealed an estimated $2.8...

House, Senate Override Bush Veto on Medicare

Move means payments to doctors won't be cut by nearly 11%

(Newser) - Congress today overrode President Bush's veto of legislation on Medicare, ensuring that payments to doctors won't be cut by nearly 11%, CNN reports. The House voted 383-41, and the Senate followed 70-26 to override the president for only the fourth time during his presidency. Bush says the legislation doesn't address...

Kennedy Returns to Senate
 Kennedy Returns to Senate 
Jul 9, 2008 4:01 PM CDT

Kennedy Returns to Senate

Ailing senator makes his first trip back since brain surgery

(Newser) - Edward Kennedy returned to the Senate today for the first time since his surgery for brain cancer to cast a vote on Medicare legislation, CNN reports. Fellow senators greeted him with a long standing ovation. Kennedy, 76, made a thumbs-up gesture after casting his vote with a loud "aye....

Dems Ready to Slap McCain on Medicare Bill

GOP senator absent with 1 vote needed to save doctor payments

(Newser) - Democrats are preparing to attack John McCain for hurting doctors, the elderly, and veterans—all by not showing up, The Hill reports. Medicare legislation to stave off a 10.6% cut in physician payments is one vote short in the Senate, and the presumptive GOP nominee, repeatedly absent when it...

McCain Vows to Balance the Budget
McCain Vows
to Balance
the Budget
Jul 7, 2008 1:44 PM CDT

McCain Vows to Balance the Budget

Social Security reform one scenario; Dems call plan unrealistic

(Newser) - John McCain will pledge to balance the budget by the end of his first term, Politico reports, promising spending and entitlement programs, including Social Security, in a policy paper released today. McCain is renewing a promise he’d backed off from in April—a vow likely to excite his fellow...

Medicare Fraud Runs Rampant
 Medicare Fraud Runs Rampant 
Jun 13, 2008 1:34 PM CDT

Medicare Fraud Runs Rampant

Most claims are filled automatically

(Newser) - Health care fraud is rampant, especially in South Florida and the LA area, and surprisingly easy to pull off, reports the Washington Post. The 11-digit annual price tag could be smaller if investigators focused more on the fact that Medicare, for example, is "highly vulnerable" to scam artists and...

Congress: No More Scribbled Scrips, Doc

Legislation will nudge MDs toward electronic prescription system

(Newser) - Senators from both sides of the aisle are pushing doctors away from their prescription pads and towards electronic prescribing, the Chicago Tribune reports. Politicians and lobbyists hope the new system will cut down on mis-filled prescriptions and harmful, but avoidable, drug interactions.

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