Medicare & the government

Doctors are seeing a 25% drop in their reimbursement rates from the government to treat Medicare patients. Doctors cannot afford to treat patients for so little reimbursement. Congress passed a measure to move $19 billion from Medicare cuts that would have covered those without insurance back to Medicare to compensate for the Sustainable Growth Rate. The Sustainable Growth Rate is a formula that compensates doctors for the rising costs of healthcare in light of the overall economy. The growth of healthcare costs has lead to Medicare needing to reimburse doctors for more and more money as an incentive to keep treating Medicare patients. The money Congress moved to cover the Medicare costs was originally cut from Medicare and intended to help pay for those who have no health insurance. So despite the government’s best efforts to make us feel cozy with our current medical coverage paid for by citizens’ tax-dollars, there is still the issue that our baby-boomers, who helped fuel the economy that is currently tanking, need to be taken care of with sustainable Medicare. They still need to be covered, and by doctors who do not have to throw up “see you in 6 months” signs at their front doors. So, in an effort to remain in office and popular with the generation with much at stake, legislators and politicians will do what Medicare requires and cover the costs. Grandma won’t have to wait in line and there won’t be “death chambers” with gatekeepers, deciding who lives and who doesn’t. Because lawmakers are doing what they do best: CYA.

So where does this leave the unemployed, the welfare recipient, or the person who assumed he or she would never need to work again because the government covered everything? They are left for the rude awakening (though, it shouldn’t be that rude because after all, America was found on the principal of capitalism: Dirty, dirty capitalism) that their health can’t be left to chance. Low and behold, we find again that the government cannot be entirely trusted, whether you are a baby-boomer who almost had a heart attack worrying that your medical insurance wasn’t going to last, or whether you’re an individual who does not currently have health insurance for whatever reason and you just wanted to try to catch a break with a free government service.

So do yourself a favor, just try. That’s really all anyone can ask of their fellow citizen, right? Try. Please, for the sake of all of us trying to get out of this economic rut, those of us unsure of the future, re-inventing ourselves, making ends meet through whatever means necessary, or whoever you are. Please, for your children who don’t need to grow up thinking the government will always be there to support their best interests. Please try to help yourself any way you can, and give your family the satisfaction of knowing that you, as their leader, didn’t trust in a man or a party that happened to be powerful for 4 years, but in a set of morals that will remain until the end.