Uh Oh--Did the Dems Piss Off Seniors?

Richard S. Foster of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (which acts as an independent technical adviser to both the Congress and the Administration--as the article says, sort of like the CBO), has released a report saying that the recent bill passed by House Democrats would "sharply reduce benefits for some senior citizens and could jeopardize access to care for millions of others, according to a government evaluation released Saturday".

Here are some more juicy bits from the article:

"The report, requested by House Republicans, found that Medicare cuts contained in the health package approved by the House on Nov. 7 are likely to prove so costly to hospitals and nursing homes that they could stop taking Medicare altogether."

and

"In the face of greatly increased demand for services, providers are likely to charge higher fees or take patients with better-paying private insurance over Medicaid recipients, "exacerbating existing access problems" in that program, according to the report from Richard S. Foster of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services."

What we see here is more evidence of the fact that the all powerful goal of universal coverage is going to come at the cost of wrecking what we already have in place. Medicare and Medicaid are already sub-optimal--and they'll only get worse from here if the Dems get their way. But the damage will not be limited to those already poorly administered examples of socialized medicine. It will soon come to ALL of our privately administered health insurance. All in the name of universal coverage for illegal aliens, young people who choose not to get care and those already enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid that the studies miss.