Bipartisan Deficit Commision Unlikely To Make Big Medicare Changes

Topics: Health Costs, Medicare

Oct 01, 2010

National Journal: "For all of the attention surrounding President Obama's bipartisan commission on deficit reduction, the country's biggest cost centers — health care in general and Medicare specifically — will likely remain unscathed when the panel offers its recommendations in December. The reason is simple: When congressional Democrats crafted the health care reform package, which became law a little more than six months ago, they did so by squeezing Medicare as much as they could politically … The Democrats' nifty feat of taking out more than $500 billion from Medicare, mostly by reducing provider payments and changing how the system pays private health insurance companies, has handcuffed the Republican budget hawks who serve on the panel. The cuts have left them nibbling around the edges in an attempt to reduce the nation's $2.5 trillion health care tab" (DoBias, 10/2). This is part of Kaiser Health News' Daily Report - a summary of health policy coverage from more than 300 news organizations. The full summary of the day's news can be found here and you can sign up for e-mail subscriptions to the Daily Report here. In addition, our staff of reporters and correspondents file original stories each day, which you can find on our home page.

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