There is Now a Real Bipartisan Opportunity in Health Care

President-Elect Obama, and about every candidate for Congress, has said he wants to change the partisan tone in Washington. Obama, the Democratic Congressional leadership, and the Republicans have a terrific opportunity to do just that on health care when they all come to Washington early next year.As I posted earlier, I do not believe there is any chance we can see the enactment of the

The Morning After: Obama and the Dems Win Big--What It Means For Health Care

258 House and 57 Senate Democrats make it almost certain that major health reform will be passed. Right?Actually, that was the number of Democrats Bill Clinton started off with in 1993 and we know what happened to health care reform in that Congress.With similar Democratic majorities, I do not expect a major health care reform bill like the one President-Elect Barack Obama called for during the

There Won't Be Any Health Care Reform Without Physician Payment Reform and There Won't Be Any Physician Payment Reform Unless the Docs Lead The Way

Physicians are facing a 10% Medicare fee cut on July 1st, a total of 15% in cuts on January 1, 2009, a cumulative total of 20% on January 1, 2010, and more each year thereafter.This spring the Senate Finance Committee is trying to solve the problem. In the short term, the idea is to reach out to future years, when they are betting the Congress would finally fundamentally reform the Medicare

Provider Payment "Food Fight"

For some time I have been saying that we are about to have a "food fight" between health care providers over who will sustain Medicare payment cuts--HMOs, docs, hospitals, nursing homes, durable medical equipment, and others.But even I was surprised by a recent email from the AMA that included this connection between provider payments and food:“While it’s unusual to think of farmers and hospitals

Bush Budget Dead On Arrival But It Underscores the Trouble With Entitlements and The Choices That Must Be Made

President Bush is calling for $560 billion in cuts from Medicare over the next decade.He would make these cuts by reducing the payments doctors and hospitals would have received.What is amazing about the Bush budget numbers is that the administration is only trying to cut Medicare's annual growth rate from 7% to 5%. At one level, that ought to be easy. After all we aren't talking about reductions