Medicare/Medicaid affected by Bush's 2008 Budget Cuts

The American College of Physicians responds to President Bush's proposals for savings in Medicare and medicaid in his 2008 budget.

From Medical news Today:

By not including funds to offset a pending cut in Medicare payments to physicians, the president's FY 2008 budget will accelerate the collapse of primary care, create access problems, and manufacture obstacles to fundamental reform of physician payment policies, the American College of Physicians (ACP) said. The organization of 120,000 internists and medical students noted that the budget assumes at least an 8 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors -- which is not sustainable -- and is certain to have a multitude of adverse effects.....click for more....

From CBS.com:

Under the Bush plan, Medicaid cuts also would hit:

_Teaching hospitals, $1.8 billion.

_Publicly owned hospitals and nursing homes, $5 billion.

_Providers of rehabilitation services for the mentally and developmentally disabled, $2.3 billion.


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From WashingtonPost.com:

Depending on whom you ask, the budget that President Bush proposed last week will save or sink Medicare and Medicaid, two popular programs that, along with Social Security, threaten to swamp the federal budget as the baby-boom generation retires.

Bush, citing the need for fiscal responsibility, proposed reducing by $101 billion over five years the spending growth of the two health programs, which serve 93 million people and will cost the government $564 billion this year. One of his most controversial ideas is to charge wealthier seniors higher Medicare premiums for the second time in the program's 41-year history.
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