what drives us crazy about healthcare is how providers & politicians throw up their hands & say 'costs are skyrocketing', as if it were an act of god. costs are skyrocketing because we let medical device manufacturers, insurance companies, & big pharma rape us. period.
case in point: the white house recently said it would delay medicare payments to doctors in order to give congress time to block a scheduled 10.6% fee cut. this fee cut is built into some good legislation that's meant to protect us from exactly this kind of pillaging. when medicare fees get too high, it kicks in to cut payments to providers as an incentive for them to keep their costs reasonable.
sounds brilliant, doesn't it? almost too good for a politician to have come up with. there's just one little problem: every single time that it's about to kick in, with the president's help, congress blocks it. why even have the law in the first place? because it looks good on paper, and probably helped a few of these folks to get re-elected.
we have a better idea: tell your congress-people to quit circumventing this law and allow the centers for medicare & medicaid services to do what this law was designed to do. we're willing to bet that, after one month of less-than-obscene profits, with the prospec of further cuts in the months to come, the medical community will back down, and we can all relax a little.
