FixHealthCarePolicy

Why Believe New Promise When Congress Breaks Old Promise?

Congress wants America to believe its new promises to control spending even as it reneges on its old promises and spends more than ever.

The “new” promise within health care reform bills is to reduce Medicare spending by hundreds of billions of dollars. Yet simultaneously, Congress is reversing 1997 legislation that claimed it would reduce Medicare spending.

The latest example of hypocrisy is known in Washington as the “doc fix,” (shorthand for fixing payment rates to doctors) and it’s scheduled for a House of Representatives vote next week.

Doctors have a valid complaint that government underpayments make it unprofitable to see Medicare patients. But throwing more borrowed money at the problem makes things worse because it moves Medicare and the rest of the federal budget deeper into bankruptcy. (more…)

Tags: doc fix, Medicare, Obama Health Care Plan, paygo, trillion dollar deficits

Is the House Health Plan Really Paid For?

Confused about whether the House health care bill, H.R. 3200, is deficit neutral? No wonder. House Leadership maintains the bill will be “fully paid for and not contribute to the deficit.” On the other hand, CBO has said the bill will add $239 billion to the deficit over 10 years. Leadership’s statement is true, but only if you assume larger deficits every year.

Larger deficits are deficit neutral? How can this be? Leadership says simple, they will pass PAYGO legislation first, and health care reform second. PAYGO – a key policy objective of the Blue Dogs because it is supposed to keep the deficit from getting bigger – requires that any new entitlement spending (or tax cuts) must be paid for by new spending cuts (or tax increases), all measured against a current services baseline. (more…)

Tags: CBO, government-run health care, health care, paygo