Its over, the Dems win

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Excaliber

Anthony it sounds like you are saying the OMB are clueless, it's their numbers, their math, not mine.

The government seems to use "fresh out of school" PhD's to write the rules, like they did with the auto bailout, people who probably donlt understand the relative importance of different factors playing into the equation.

One who blindly agrees with anybody/anything, without a good understanding of the specifics in question, makes me believe they are clueless.

Originally Posted by Excaliber

Fair enough, you don't believe the numbers or the calculations. Myself, I won't dismiss them out of hand. But as the OMB has made clear, it is extremely difficult to forecast these numbers so far into the future. So there is reason for doubt. Savings on Medicare is only a part of the overall calculations. Increased taxes also play a roll.

Personally I think the best way to save money on Medicare is to more aggresively go after fraud, which is rampant. Factoring in fraud would constitute a HUGE inefficency within Health Care. I would say more than the proposed 33%.

There you go, believeing in facts that in my opinion are clearly unsubstantiated, the waste thing, fraud thing, inefficiency thing. I can tell you, I know alot of doctors/hospital systems, and there rarely is fraud, I mean rarely. There are some fly by night companies that bill for ficticious patients, that are clearly fraud, but that is really rare. It just doesn't occur to nearly the level you and the rest of the country is led to believe. The money is not there to save. It will have to be funded by reducing services offered, increasing taxes, or more likely both. I'm already thinking about hiring some PA's to take care of my Medicare patients, so I don;t have to, and I will still get payed the same. Just think of it, patients will now be treated by PA's, NP's instead of doctors. The medical industry is alot more efficient than what people think, and definitely alot more efficient than the government. You have good ideals, but that is all they are, ideals that really don't make any good sense on how to implement.