WASHINGTON , D.C. (NETWORK INDIANA): Many experts have attributed a good portion of the rising national debt to the cost of Medicare throughout the U.S.
Because of this and other factors, the Congressional Budget Office has also noted that within the 10-year window that it gauges spending bills put forth by lawmakers, increases to Medicare spending would only make the deficit worse.
This has resulted in several bills supported by Rep. Larry Bucshon being struck down. Bucshon, a medical doctor by trade, is advocating for higher reimbursement for doctors who treat patients on Medicare.
“I disagree with how they (the CBO) score healthcare. They don’t project future savings,” Bucshon said in a forum hosted by The Hill. “If you scored in the out years (spending on Medicare) prevents chronic liver failure, liver transplants, multiple hospitalizations, outside the ten-year window and it makes people healthier.”
Bucshon argues that these healthier practices will result in fewer visits to the doctor, which will then save the government money in coverage through Medicare in the long run.
“If we score (bills) strictly on the ten-year budget window it costs a bunch of money,” acknowledged Bucshon. “But, we have to have the ability to say “Okay, here are the out-savings to the system”, which I would argue is ten times what the initial cost would be.”
Bucshon is hoping to convince lawmakers to get behind his proposal to increase physician reimbursement throughout Medicare despite the initial high costs projected by the CBO as they continue to hammer out agreements on the last of several spending bills that need to be approved soon.
2 comments
decouple medical care from insurance for starters…
The problem with health care costs, doctors, hospitals, drugs, and medications, is tinkering by government officials. If you want to do a real service for The People in general and Hoosiers in particular eliminate nearly all federal agencies that have anything to do with healthcare. Just keep the minimum and make they do the job they did 75 years ago rather than dabbling in DEI, CRT, and other foolish new waves of cool. So once again a congress critter tinkers and claims he’s fixing a hole. My doctors office old me about dealing with other agencies. American Pay all the freight when new drugs are made. people in many other countries pay a lot less than Americans pay for the same drugs. Part of that disparity is the heavy weight of government we must pay for as a part of the price of the drugs. The congressman is just another fool that cannot place his finger on the precise words in the US Constitution, that he swore a sacred oath to follow, where the federal government was given any authority over health care. A very large very expensive administrative state has been built up concerning healthcare but it is all UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Our constitution is the basic rules for our government. Yet those we elect are totally ignorant about what is actually says. They just go to DC and follow what the older people tell them to do. They are told, “We’ve always done it that way.” A deeper problem is We The People are even more ignorant of how it is supposed to work regarding our own government. It is a Republic, not a democracy. A democracy always devolves into a MOBOCRACY. The founders knew that and created a REPUBLIC with certain democratic systems. We ignore their ideals at great peril to our personal being. Just look around you. For the last three years that great democrat Dopey Joe Biden has acted more like a dictator than a president of a republic. I’ve had enough! I’ve had enough of paying for all this garbage.