And I beg to disagree with the usual suspects: a bill with a trigger, opt out or what have you is infinitely better than no bill at all.  A "bill" you can tinker with; nothing, you wait another decade or two.

Source: CNN MONEY

If a proposed 21% cut in payment rates goes through in 2010, it could spark a physician boycott against new enrollees


Medicare has become a scary word to the doctors at the largest private group practice in Kansas City, Mo.

It's so scary that most physicians at Kansas City Internal Medicine, with 65% of its nearly 70,000 active patients age 65 or older, have stopped accepting walk-in Medicare enrollees, said Dr. David Wilt, an internist at the group.

Wilt and his colleagues say they are shunning the area's growing senior population because they believe Medicare doesn't reimburse physicians enough to cover the cost of care.

"And if Medicare further cuts its reimbursement rates, then we'll be functioning at a loss," said Wilt.

Wilt -- and doctors with lots of senior patients -- are especially troubled by a 21% cut in Medicare payments to physicians scheduled to take place in 2010. Last week, the Senate voted against stopping that cut, and more annual cuts over the next decade, from taking place.

"If the (21%) cut happens, that cut in our payments will exceed our profits. The only option to us to stay in business will be to fire employees," Wilt said.

Physicians say a boycott against Medicare has already begun because they are tired of dealing with the yearly threat of a payment cut.



Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/27/news/economy/healthcare...

Oversight panel: Government was slow on H1N1 threat

By William Douglas | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The federal government's preparedness for the H1N1, or swine flu, pandemic that's claimed for more than 1,000 lives nationwide was inadequate and incomplete, a congressional subcommittee said Tuesday.

Both Democratic and Republican members of the subcommittee stopped short of blaming President Barack Obama's administration, but they made it clear that they expect improved handling of the pandemic in the near future.  

snip

"Our early warning and detection systems were inadequate," said Rep. Yvette Clark, D-N.Y., the subcommittee's chairwoman. "Some key planning activities were incomplete; we didn't have a good approach to provide health care under pandemic conditions; and levels of preparedness for pandemic influenza were unclear. Unfortunately, our failure to develop these systems, activities and policies cost us during the response."

g'nite and Hu Jo, thank for the kudos on the earlier thread.  (Sssshhhh!  We mustn't tell anyone that I pay you to say nice things about my posts.  :-)

and though Congress will never allow draconian cuts my feeling is that sometimes when a runaway stage coach is headed towards main street a Tom Mix has to shoot the lead horse

my main complaint about the healthcare reform is it hasn't met that challenge head on