Oh, So Now We Know...

Since only sketchy or no details about the Health Care DIsaster bill were available to the public or the media before it was passed (doesn't that make you feel good about the process?), we are only now seeing better evaluations trickle out about the costs of the bill.

Below is a portion of a report out today from Fox News regarding the evaluation from the Dept. of Health and Human Services on the cost of the bill. You should keep one thing in mind on the little comment inserted about "that increase could get bigger." This evaluation is required by the bill to assume that a 20% cut in Medicare reimbursement will be allowed to occur. This is the same 20% cut that has been "scheduled" to occur for years now. Every time it comes due to take place, Congress postpones it for anywhere from a week to a month to a year. This is the exact same proposed cut that in the past month we've seen postponed for a number of days at a time, some 3 or 4 times.

Why doesn't the "cut" take place? Because if it did, many hospitals, clinics, and doctors that care for Medicare patients would go under financially or have to stop caring for Medicare patients. That would create a huge crisis because Medicare patients would not have ready access to care in many cases. That situation will not improve with time, which is why I can't see it realistically ever taking place.

If you never implement that 20% cut, then the cost of the health care bill increases significantly, even dramatically. Now can you understand why Congress made sure the bill never addressed this problem? They didn't want the bad press that would come with it, since it would make it even more obvious that the bill will INCREASE the cost of health care in the U.S.. And yet it's as real as the sun, earth, and air.

Here's the excerpt:

"WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law will increase the nation's health care tab instead of bringing costs down, government economic forecasters concluded Thursday in a sobering assessment of the sweeping legislation.

A report by economic experts at the Health and Human Services Department said the health care remake will achieve Obama's aim of expanding health insurance -- adding 34 million Americans to the coverage rolls.

But the analysis also found that the law falls short of the president's twin goal of controlling runaway costs, raising projected spending by about 1 percent over 10 years. That increase could get bigger, however, since the report also warned that Medicare cuts in the law may be unrealistic and unsustainable, forcing lawmakers to roll them back."

Full story here.