Health Legislation Balanced on the Backs of Seniors as Medicare Payments to Physicians to be Slashed

Despite AARP's advocacy of this past year's putative "universal health care" bill, and uninformed--or purposely misleading--articles by sources that should know better; e.g., the New York Times-- seniors will most certainly pay a disproportionate price for this sell out to the insurance industry.

Who say so? Physicians who face a 21 % cut in Medicare reimbursements, which I suppose are part of the "savings" that the Obama Administration expects to help pay for last year's appalling legislation. This "the devil is in the details" surprise was pointed out by this writer during last year's so called health care "debate"--a misnomer for what really was a fraudulent campaign of disinformation.

In the Tuesday, June 15 "Letters to the Editor" section of the Wall Street Journal, a cardiac anesthesiologist who primarily provides care for older and disabled patients writes, in part--

"...Indeed, the proposed and continually delayed legislation ...preserves current levels of Medicare reimbursement to physicians by reversing a pending 21 % slash in Medicare physician payments..."

"...If over one-fifth of Medicare revenue is cut from physicians' offices, our seniors and disabled will likely suffer. Undesirable outcomes will likely lead to fewer physicians seeing Medicare patients, office staff layoffs, medical and support personnel cuts and overall impaired access..."

"...It would appear that this past year's health legislative changes are being balanced on the backs of our seniors and the disabled who depend on Medicare..."