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"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" Wednesday September 21, 2011

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

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.


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"Medicaid Block Grant and Consumer-Directed Healthcare", NCPA.org

D4PC Opinion: This article is a great review of a plan consistent with our policy proposal for Medicaid.

"If Medicaid were turned into a block grant program in which the federal government gave each state a set amount of money, it could improve patient care, restrain the growth in costs, reduce complexity and improve outcomes. Furthermore, block grants could be used to implement consumer-directed reforms that allow Medicaid enrollees to control some of the spending on their care and give them incentives to avoid unnecessary care".

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"Democrats Knew Obamacare's Class Act Was A Fiscal Disaster, They Passed It Anyway", Reason.com

"Half of ObamaCare's supposed deficit reduction comes from the Community Living Assistance Service and Supports (CLASS) Act, a long-term care benefit tacked onto the bill and scored as reducing the deficit by about $70 billion over the next decade. But that's only because the law's authors gamed the Congressional Budget Office's scoring rules. The score counted premiums collected this decade as reducing the deficit despite the fact that they'll be needed to pay out benefits later. Even worse, the premiums won't be enough to pay for all of the benefits: In the long-term, the program isn't self-sustaining, and will actually add to the federal deficit. 

The Obama administration now admits this: Earlier this year, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told Congress that after ObamaCare's passage, “we determined pretty quickly that [CLASS] would not meet the requirement that the act be self-sustaining and not rely on taxpayer assistance.”

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"The Case For Competition In Medicare", The Heritage Foundation

"Policymakers need to decide which policy approach is most likely to lead to a virtuous cycle of productivity improvement and higher quality throughout the health sector. Given the track record, it is not reasonable to expect top-down reforms, such as those in the new health care law, to produce the desired improvements.

However, a well-functioning marketplace would set in motion the forces needed to transform American medical care, including in the Medicare context, into a model of efficient patient-centered care. Policymakers have good reason to conclude that American health care would benefit from the transformational power of the marketplace that has consistently improved products and services in other sectors of the U.S. and global economies.

The government can and should play an important oversight role in such a reformed system, but the difficult organizational changes and innovations needed to provide better care at lower cost must come from the bottom up, not from the top down. In other words, changes should come from those who are delivering services to patients, not from Congress, the Department of Health and Human Services, or an appointed board of remote and unaccountable “experts.”

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