Friday, February 26, 2010

Well Rationing is Beginning

"Just Let Grandma Die!" is the mantra of the under 40s who have yet to contribute to society, unless of course if they were bankers in which case they caused this mess, the "me generation", those over-privileged who start every conversation telling you all about themselves and their travails. The ones who feel that they are owed everything, the group who have a scotoma for the hard working Chinese and Indian students who in twenty years will eat their lunches.

But today the left wing Kaiser California group presents a compelling article regarding the dis-assembly of Medicare. They state:

With a 21 percent Medicare reimbursement rate cut set for Monday, unless Congress acts to block it, some doctors are threatening to refuse new Medicare patients in their practices.

"'To our physicians, we are providing information on their Medicare participation options, including how to remove themselves from the Medicare program,' said James Rohack, president of the American Medical Association, whose more than 250,000 members include doctors, medical students and faculty members," CNN reports. Rohack says temporary delays of the yearly scheduled rate cut should be eliminated. "He said the AMA wants the current law to be repealed and a new formula used 'that more accurately reflects the cost of providing care' in determining Medicare reimbursement rates. … In the meantime, physicians are asking the AMA to prepare handouts they can give patients to prepare them for the worst-case scenario: getting dropped completely. And a new report on the AMA's Web site tells doctors how they can help their patients find other doctors if they decide to no longer accept Medicare."

A survey by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons "found that 65% of its 3,400 members said they are referring their Medicare patients to other doctors. About 60% said they were reducing the number of Medicare patients in their practice"

This means that even the Administration lap dogs in the AMA are now shaking in their boots. Medicare will just destruct on its own. This just one day after the Yalta like Health Care meeting in Blair House! Well it is one way to get rid of Grandma!