Blog and News

"Docs4PatientCare.org is a politically neutral grassroots coalition of physicians.  Use of any politically partisan terms does not reflect the position of Docs4PatientCare.org.  We do encourage our speakers to express how they feel and we post articles based on their informative content only.  Any politically partisan language used does not reflect the group as a whole.  Specific party or political allegiances and opposition are not our intent.  The goal of D4PC is only to advocate for effective and responsible health care reform."

D4PC "Morning Rounds" Monday, February 20, 2012

Monday, February 20, 2012

Welcome to D4PC "Morning Rounds", your daily review of healthcare news and information from Washington, DC and around the nation. These briefings will keep you up to date on recent developments and our effort to replace the PPACA with patient-centered reforms that protect the doctor-patient relationship and preserve individual freedom of choice.



------------------------------------------------------

"Trapped in Medicare," FreedomWorks

Earlier this month, a federal appeals court ruled that Americans who were eligible for Medicare could not opt-out of the law and voluntarily forego all benefits of the program - even if their life depended on an opt-out. The court relied on a Clinton-era policy that tied the receipt of Social Security benefits - anyone who did not take up Medicare would lose Social Security benefits.

"This regulation is both bad policy and a bad fit for a free society. Defenders of the regulation claim that if seniors were free to opt out of Medicare, then the healthy and wealthy would do so while leaving behind a pool of high-risk participants, which would therefore drive up costs. This just isn’t the case."

---------------------------------------------------------

"Burr-Coburn: The Best Medicare Reform Proposal Yet." Forbes.com

"Many politicians (and many voters) duck the hard choices when it comes to Medicare reform. But what’s remarkable about the past year is that, in some ways, momentum appears to be building for real improvements to the program’s quality and sustainability."

"I have a lengthy essay in the Summer 2011 issue of National Affairs on Medicare reform, entitled “Saving Medicare from Itself.” In it, I discuss six core concepts for real Medicare reform: (1) preserving benefits for people aged 55 and older; (2) making sure that retirees share more of the costs of their care, and thereby a stake in prudent consumption; (3) means-testing; (4) indexing the Medicare retirement age to life expectancy; (5) aggressive fraud prevention; (6) allowing seniors to shop for value in insurance plans. The Lieberman-Coburn bill hits on many of these points in a way that well complements Paul Ryan’s premium support proposal."

---------------------------------------------------------

"President's Budget Shows Feds Can't Create ObamaCare 'Exchanges'", CATO

"The federal government doesn’t have the money to create ObamaCare Exchanges, and the administration has no hope of getting that funding through the Republican-controlled House. So if states don’t create Exchanges, they might not exist. (And even if the federal government does create them, they won’t work.)"

"Never mind the lawsuits. The Exchanges may be ObamaCare’s most serious vulnerability."

-----------------------------------------------------------

"Oregon Legislature Block ObamaCare 'Exchange'", CATO

"A coalition of 30 Republicans and 1 Democrat in the state House of Representatives blocked approval of Oregon’s health insurance exchange this morning…"

What this bipartisan group understands is that ObamaCare and the exchanges represent a real threat to the state budget.
  
Go Back

Recent Posts

Tags

Archive