Who will save Medicare? Note to AARP… Nobody yet

Here is what the President said about Medicare to an AARP gathering today:

Obama rejected Ryan’s contention that the law takes $716 billion out of Medicare.

“What we did was, we went after waste and fraud and overcharging by insurance companies for example. Those savings do come out to $716 million dollars,” Obama said.

Okay they are making a big deal over fraud and waste, whether that has anything to do with reform or whether it is significant in the scope of the fiscal problem facing Medicare is another matter. Regardless, reducing fraud and waste is a given administering any government program … we wish.

Now as far as the old tune against insurance companies goes … blah, blah, blah. What insurance companies, the Medicare Advantage Plans that Congress decided to pay 14% more than traditional Medicare to shift risk from Medicare and encourage enrollment? It’s true Obamcare does cut payments to these organizations … and the rest of the story is … check out the articles under the Medicare section of this blog.

In fact, the bulk of the cuts come from reduced payments to doctors, hospitals and other health care providers. And oh yes, he forgot to mention those “savings” were spent elsewhere.

Here we have the President pandering to senior citizens with the same old “everything is hunky dory and you won’t be affected” story. Even the Medicare Trustees and actuary have raised concerns about the realistic cost saving affects of the Obamacare changes the President so readily touts

What a sad state of affairs indeed.

9-21-12