Health Care Spending

Over the weekend, both parties battled it out over the latest report on health care plans from Democrats, written by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a non-partisan arm of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The report said the House passed health bill would increase spending on health care by $289 billion over ten years, which goes against what Democrats have been arguing about the bill's overall impact.

"With the exception of the proposed reductions in Medicare payment updates for institutional providers, the provisions of H.R. 3962 would not have a significant impact on future health care cost growth rates," said a final bullet point on page 17.

You can download the report and read it for yourself at http://is.gd/4VQQ2

Then, Chief Actuary Richard Foster delivered a real gut kick to the Democratic plans, saying "the longer-term viability of the Medicare update reductions is doubtful."
That means plans in the bill to cut costs in Medicare probably won't occur, because certain groups will complain and the Congress will then go back on the proposed cuts, just like we have seen in the reductions in Medicare payments for Doctors, the so-called "Doc Fix".

SOURCE: Jamie Dupree