The Next Obamacare Attack on Medicare

By now, most folks know that Obamacare took over $700 billion out of the Medicare Trust Fund to pay for other things than the Medicare benefits for which those taxes were intended. President Obama and the other Obamacrats tell us that taking these fund is not going to harm seniors or reduce their benefits; Medicare is just going to reduce payments to hospitals and doctors. The Obamacrats conveniently ignore the fact that many doctors will stop seeing Medicare patients if the payment for their services gets too low. Now, however, we are seeing another attack by Obamacare on Medicare. This time the focus of the attack is on hospitals that provide care for seniors. Starting next month, hospitals that treat Medicare patients (which is nearly every hospital in America) will be penalized if their readmission rate is too high. Let me explain. Hospitals will have to keep track of how many of their Medicare patients are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge; those with percentages above the national level set by the bureaucrats will have their payments for all Medicare services reduced.

This is the kind of policy that could only be approved when the decision is made by politicians and bureaucrats rather than doctors. Think about it. A senior with heart problems is admitted to the hospital for tests. then he goes home. Two weeks later, the senior has a heart attack. When he goes back to the hospital, Medicare penalizes the hospital for the "readmission". This practice will not stop the admission when the patient has his heart attack. It will, however, discourage the test that was the first admission. How about a senior with a chronic or progressive condition like cancer. The senior gets admitted after suffering a side effect from chemotherapy. When this happens again a few weeks later, the senior is back in the hospital. Should one or the other of these problems be treated only as an out patient even though hospital care is needed?

I know first hand than some elderly patients will inevitably be in and out of the hospital for months or even years. The Obamacrats now are trying to discourage full treatment for these folks. Is this the time for that pain pill that Obama talked about? (Remeber -- Obama told a woman who asked about her mother's care that sometimes you just have to tell grandma to take the pain pill.) The inevitable effect of this new attack by Obamacare on Medicare is worse medical treatment for seniors.