WASHINGTON, June 13, 2009
Obama: Save $1T By Cutting Fed Med Costs
Would Pay For Health Reform By Trimming Gov't Payments To Prescription Drugmakers, Hospitals
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(AP/CBS/iStockphoto)
Mr. Obama is seeking to help pay for his health care plan by sharply reducing the government's medical spending, mainly by trimming payments to prescription drugmakers, hospitals and other care providers.
"This includes over $300 billion that we will save through changes like reducing Medicare overpayments to private insurers, and rooting out waste in Medicare and Medicaid," he said.
Other savings would come from cutting payments to hospitals for emergency care for the uninsured, because now everyone will be covered.
The White House proposal, released just this morning, adds up to about $950 billion in savings over ten years.
Critics have argued the health plan would cost up to $1.3 trillion, which means raising taxes to cover the difference.
Mr. Obama's ambitions are thick but the details thin; the president and his aides said specific ways for achieving the cuts will be decided later. The negotiations could trigger fierce political battles between powerful industries trying to protect their profits.
Overhauling the nation's health care system is one of the president's biggest ambitions, and lawmakers are working on a variety of plans. A top goal is to reduce costs in the government's largest medical programs, Medicare and Medicaid, which cover millions of elderly and low-income Americans and involve thousands of doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and other institutions.
In his weekly Internet and radio address Saturday, President Obama proposed cutting $313 billion from the programs over 10 years. That's in addition to the $635 billion "down payment" in tax increases and spending cuts in the health care system that he announced earlier.
The newly proposed $313 billion in savings, he said, "will come from commonsense changes." He would cut $106 billion from payments that help hospitals treat uninsured people because his plan would cover nearly every American. Payments for Medicare prescription drugs would fall by $75 billion over 10 years.
And slowing projected increases in Medicare payments to hospitals and other providers - but not doctors - would save $110 billion over 10 years, the president said. His budget director, Peter Orszag, said the reductions are justified because health care delivery is becoming more efficient.
But Orszag and Mr. Obama acknowledged that many details remain to be worked out. The president said simply, "If the drugmakers pay their fair share, we can cut government spending on prescription drugs."
A White House fact sheet said the pharmaceutical industry "has committed itself to helping to control the rate of growth in health care spending. There are a variety of ways to achieve this goal."
For instance, it said, drug reimbursements might be reduced for people who receive both Medicare and Medicaid.
But the pharmaceutical industry is politically powerful. Drugmakers have successfully resisted price controls in the Medicare prescription program so far, arguing that competition is enough to get elderly Americans a good deal.
Other government programs, however, such as Medicaid and the Veterans Affairs health system, may be paying less for many of the same drugs.
Billy Tauzin, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, issued a noncommittal statement.
"We remain committed to working with the administration and Congress to help enact comprehensive health care reform this year," he said. "A lot of work remains to be done, but we will continue to share ideas and seek solutions."
Lobbyists for hospitals, doctors and many other players also have clout in Washington, complicating Mr. Obama's mission.
Even if the president and Congress could hit the overall goal of $948 billion in health care savings over 10 years, it still might not be enough to cover the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans. Outside experts say the 10-year cost could range from $1.2 trillion to $1.8 trillion, depending on factors such as how generous federal subsidies turn out to be. One Senate proposal would subsidize families making as much as $110,000.
The administration wants to hold the cost to about $1 trillion, and Mr. Obama says the plan must not add to the federal deficit.
Orszag told reporters that $950 billion "is in the ballpark of many of the proposals floating around," and that "there may well be some additional resources that are necessary."
The administration will work with Congress, he said. But the president's earlier package of $635 billion in spending cuts and tax increases has gotten a cool reception from lawmakers, and there's no indication the latest package will fare any better.
One Democratic plan that's competing alongside today's White House proposal would tax employee health benefits as if they were income, said Dozier.
Medical providers from hospitals to doctors to drug makers have agreed with Mr. Obama that there's enough waste in the system to cut $2 trillion over 10 years, but behind-the-scenes they are preparing to resist specific cuts.
Critics also argue government-provided healthcare would be a lot like the Medicare and Medicaid programs Mr. Obama is trying to clean up.
“I’m opposed to the government option, period,” Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Thursday. "If you like going to the DMV and you think they do a great job, or if you like going to the post office and think it’s the most efficient thing you’ve run into, then you’ll love the government-run health care system, because that’s basically what you’re going to have.”
Healthcare activists say that's just the GOP negotiating, that - surprisingly this time around - everyone seems to agree change is needed.
"I think we will get meaningful health care reform done this year," Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA, told CBS News. "I think the stars are aligned."
Dozier said Mr. Obama can expect some tough questioning of his plan, from the GOP and also when he speaks in Chicago on Monday to the American Medical Association - to some of those very healthcare providers he says are being overpaid.
© MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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- Quote: "... and rooting out waste in Medicare and Medicaid," he said.
Good, so then those who HAVE insurance should HAVE to pay for their kids medical instead of getting medicare/medicaid/state medical funding for them.
I know two different families. Both family has a son with cerebral palsy. In both, the parents work AND have insurance. One family gets all the government perks (aka medical-disability check) the other REFUSED any government help and paid their sons medical and every day expenses. Guess which family had the less yearly total gross income and supported four kids (whereas the other family had two kids)....The one who REFUSED the help. - Reply to this comment
- Doesn't anybody get it? He's "finding" this money by NOT letting the elderly get tests that the GOV will deems not needed & then he gonna do the same to the poorest of the poor & the disabled in our country.
IMPEACH OBAMA NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Reply to this comment
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- You are right! He's taking certain health care procedures away from the poor and elderly who can't afford to pay for any of their health care, to give to the middle class who are much better off financially than the poor and elderly and can afford to pay for at least part of their health care! It's just not right!
- Last year I paid $200 a month for single person health insurance, with a $1, 200.00 deductible, and a co-pay of $35.00 each time I saw a doctor. For in-network hospital visits I had to pay the deductible before the insurance would pay a penny of the bill. After I paid off the deductible, I had to pay 20% of any hospital bill I got.
Deny the GOP's health care claim! Stop government by the corporations, for the corporations. Shoot a lobbyist, if you want affordable healthcare. - Reply to this comment
- And what's really hilarious is when the SEC auditor started getting all these complaints about these bad loans and requested a hearing to report it to Congress...the RANKING democrats stood up in that hearing and lied like rugs saying there WERE ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEMS WHATSOEVER AT FANNIE/FREDDIE, and YOU DO NOT HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO AUDIT FANNIE/FREDDIE, mind your own business!!!!
And the BAD LOANS just kept rollling right on out there for THREE MORE YEARS!!!! Until the financial markets TOTALLY collapsed and they couldn't hide it anymore!!!
And to this date, they're STILL lying about it and they're still trying to manufacture numbers and they're STILL trying to justify what they did...
And the stupid and gullible, like YOU, are doing the same thing!!!! - Reply to this comment
- DUH! DUH! DUH! DUH!
Posted by IThoughtItWasFunnyAgin
Hungry, you've reduced her to stammering in caps, lol. - Reply to this comment
- Of course they KNEW, why do you think they were cooking their freaking books??? The investors were coming back at them like HAWKS wanting their MONEY!!!!
Not even close.
Posted by hungry1968-15 at 9:42 PM : Jun 14, 2009
Yes, close, as a matter of fact SPOT ON....
Here's a little schooling for you, Hungry....
You are a democrat who is appointed by a democrat as the CEO of Fannie/Freddie....
You are guaranteeing every loan that the banks and financial institutions are putting out because THAT'S WHAT YOU WERE TOLD TO DO! No matter what PUT THESE LOANS THROUGH!
All of a sudden all these investors start INSISTING that you pay them the money for all these BAD LOANS that YOU guaranteed because that's what you were TOLD TO DO!
Who's the first person that you are going to consult when you realize that the GREAT MAJORITY of these loans are bad? Who are you going to consult that oversees your operation? Which happens to be the Banking and Finance committees IN CONGRESS?
Are you going to call the RANKING republicans on those commmittees, or are you going to call the RANKING democrats on those committees with this REALLY REALLY BAD NEWS? Especially when you don't want the republicans to know that the policies generated by the DEMOCRATS are causing this REALLY REALLY SERIOUSLY BAD SITUATION?
What you're going to do is get on the phone and call the DEMOCRATS that put you in the chair that you are sitting in and saying how can we keep this HUSH HUSH!
The RANKING DEMOCRATS on the committees that oversee your operation are going to go HOLY KRAP don't tell anybody!!!!! Not ANYBODYYYYYYYYYYYY! Do whatever you have to do...cook your books so they're not showing that you're having to pay for all these BAD LOANS.....because the republicans are going to eat our lunch because they TOLD US THIS WOULD HAPPEN!
And that's what the democrats at Fannie/Freddie did, they cooked their books, and they got caught doing it, and they were fired and they were fined for it....and then when the republicans tried to promulgate legislation so it couldn't happen again and legislate an audit process for Fannie/Freddie, the RANKING democrats on the comitteesss stopped it EVERY TIME, dead in it's tracks! - Reply to this comment
- Back to health care...........
So Fannie gets sick and has to quit her job and her husband Freddie is self employed and can't afford health coverage for them both, if they want to eat and have a roof and clothes, all that luxury stuff.. .. are they deadbeats or are they just screwed because of a system that doesn't work?
Something needs to be done for working people, who do pay taxes and do deserve at least as much as the Congresspeople who they employ.
Period. - Reply to this comment
- by IThoughtItWasFunnyAgin June 14, 2009 9:38 PM PDT
Right.
They didn't even know that they were buying garbage because the banks used a "shell game" to sell it to them, but it's all their fault that they did believe the banks and buy their garbage, right?
Posted by hungry1968-15 at 9:33 PM : Jun 14, 2009
Of course they KNEW, why do you think they were cooking their freaking books??? The investors were coming back at them like HAWKS wanting their MONEY!!!!
Not even close. - Reply to this comment
- Here's a little education for you HUNGRY! Finance companies and banks were making BAD LOANS AND FANNIE/FREDDIE WERE GUARANTEEING THEM, THEN THEY WERE BUNDLING THEM UP AS DERIVATIVES TRYING TO SELL THEM OFF TO PRIVATE INVESTORS....THE PRIVATE INVESTORS BOUGHT A LOAD OF BAD INVESTMENTS OFF FANNIE/FREDDIE AND THE WHOLE FINANCIAL MARKETS COLLAPSED!!!!
AND ALL THE WHILE FANNIE/FREDDIE CEO'S WERE COOKING THEIR BOOKS TRYING TO COVER UP WHAT THEY WERE DOING!
IS THAT EASY ENOUGH FOR YOU, HUNGRY????
by IThoughtItWasFunnyAgin June 14, 2009 9:33 PM PDT
With this post, you've just proven that you have NO IDEA what Fannie or Freddie do, how they got burned by the banks, and how they're victims in the whole scam, getting stuck with BILLIONS of garbage "financial products" sold to them by the banks, that they couldn't unload themselves, which caused ALL of their problems.
Good luck with your education.
You're WAY behind!! - Reply to this comment
- Right.
They didn't even know that they were buying garbage because the banks used a "shell game" to sell it to them, but it's all their fault that they did believe the banks and buy their garbage, right?
Posted by hungry1968-15 at 9:33 PM : Jun 14, 2009
Of course they KNEW, why do you think they were cooking their freaking books??? The investors were coming back at them like HAWKS wanting their MONEY!!!! - Reply to this comment
- I will be kind and educate --
Quasi-governmental entities and political entities are not the same thing.
Posted by velma179 at 9:24 PM : Jun 14, 2009
*****
There is a point here somewhere?
*******
Yes and it must have gone over your head.
Please tell me what you don't understand, I'll be happy to give you the typing equivalent of :
s-p-e-a-k-i-n-g s-l-o-w-l-y.......
Posted by velma179 at 9:30 PM : Jun 14, 2009
When I need an education I'll go to somebody that can teach me something I don't already know. - Reply to this comment
- I KNOW that Fannie and Freddie didn't do anything to cause the mortgage meltdown, and I KNOW that they are victims in the whole mess, just because of what they do, and how they relate to the banking industry.
It's education that I'm trying to FORCE on YOU, that you're opposing - not information for myself.
Posted by hungry1968-15 at 9:23 PM : Jun 14, 2009
Well, then you don't know jack spit, AS USUAL because Fannie/Freddie and the CRS were the DIRECT CAUSE OF THE BREAKDOWN OF THE FINANCIAL MARKETS because FANNIE/FREDDIE was bulking up BAD LOANS and selling them as derivatives....and because they were selling KRAP the financial markets collapsed because nobody trusts them anymore!
DUH! DUH! DUH! DUH!
Posted by IThoughtItWasFunnyAgin at 9:28 PM : Jun 14, 2009
+ report abuse + permalink
Here's a little education for you HUNGRY! Finance companies and banks were making BAD LOANS AND FANNIE/FREDDIE WERE GUARANTEEING THEM, THEN THEY WERE BUNDLING THEM UP AS DERIVATIVES TRYING TO SELL THEM OFF TO PRIVATE INVESTORS....THE PRIVATE INVESTORS BOUGHT A LOAD OF BAD INVESTMENTS OFF FANNIE/FREDDIE AND THE WHOLE FINANCIAL MARKETS COLLAPSED!!!!
AND ALL THE WHILE FANNIE/FREDDIE CEO'S WERE COOKING THEIR BOOKS TRYING TO COVER UP WHAT THEY WERE DOING!
IS THAT EASY ENOUGH FOR YOU, HUNGRY???? - Reply to this comment
- Well, then you don't know jack spit, AS USUAL because Fannie/Freddie and the CRS were the DIRECT CAUSE OF THE BREAKDOWN OF THE FINANCIAL MARKETS because FANNIE/FREDDIE was bulking up BAD LOANS and selling them as derivatives....and because they were selling KRAP the financial markets collapsed because nobody trusts them anymore!
DUH! DUH! DUH! DUH!
by IThoughtItWasFunnyAgin June 14, 2009 9:28 PM PDT
Right.
They didn't even know that they were buying garbage because the banks used a "shell game" to sell it to them, but it's all their fault that they did believe the banks and buy their garbage, right? - Reply to this comment
- But I will be kind and educate --
Quasi-governmental entities and political entities are not the same thing.
Posted by velma179 at 9:24 PM : Jun 14, 2009
*****
There is a point here somewhere?
*******
Yes and it must have gone over your head.
Please tell me what you don't understand, I'll be happy to give you the typing equivalent of :
s-p-e-a-k-i-n-g s-l-o-w-l-y....... - Reply to this comment
- You weren't explaining jack spit....you were yapping about how much INCOME TAX New York pays....and then to prove it, you threw up a LINK to a wikipidia page showing a list of GSP per state....WHICH HAS NO RELATIONSHIP TO INCOME TAX paid.
by IThoughtItWasFunnyAgin June 14, 2009 9:24 PM PDT
AGAIN -- you were trying to make a comparison between GSP and the amount of money that the states send to Washington, and I debunked BOTH of your myths, even though they were unrelated, and you thought they were.
Obviously you're drunk.
Why don't you go fall down somewhere and pass out? - Reply to this comment
- I KNOW that Fannie and Freddie didn't do anything to cause the mortgage meltdown, and I KNOW that they are victims in the whole mess, just because of what they do, and how they relate to the banking industry.
It's education that I'm trying to FORCE on YOU, that you're opposing - not information for myself.
Posted by hungry1968-15 at 9:23 PM : Jun 14, 2009
Well, then you don't know jack spit, AS USUAL because Fannie/Freddie and the CRS were the DIRECT CAUSE OF THE BREAKDOWN OF THE FINANCIAL MARKETS because FANNIE/FREDDIE was bulking up BAD LOANS and selling them as derivatives....and because they were selling KRAP the financial markets collapsed because nobody trusts them anymore!
DUH! DUH! DUH! DUH! - Reply to this comment
- Yes, they were at the heart of the matter. They're more akin to a valve than a ventricle or the aorta.
Posted by -Lawyers-Guns-n-Money- at 9:09 PM : Jun 14, 2009
Fannie and Freddie are the pump muscle. When they go rotten, the whole heart fails.
Posted by bothR2blame31 at 9:15 PM : Jun 14, 2009
Wrong and wrong. I'm sure since your such a financial whiz, you'd explain what exactly F and F did to cause a global finacial downturn. Were they the onew that artificially speculated property prices through the Roof? No. F and F didn't even corner the lions share of the sub-prime market so who did and why aren't they responsible?
I'll give you credit inasmuch as both are to blame, but you seem to be zeroing in on ONE single paty and entity to ally that blame. In short, you're a right wing hack. - Reply to this comment
- But I will be kind and educate --
Quasi-governmental entities and political entities are not the same thing.
Posted by velma179 at 9:24 PM : Jun 14, 2009
There is a point here somewhere? - Reply to this comment
- That's what I tried to explain to you for 45 minutes, over 20 or so posts, and you kept arguing with me.
Then when you were INSISTING that NY didn't contribute ANYTHING to the national GDP, (because NY is a state full of "unemployed bums" -- your words), THAT IS WHEN I posted the wikipedia page proving that NY is near the top of the list in GSP - 3rd overall.
They're unrelated, and you're STILL wrong on both counts.
You Big Dummy!!
Posted by hungry1968
You weren't explaining jack spit....you were yapping about how much INCOME TAX New York pays....and then to prove it, you threw up a LINK to a wikipidia page showing a list of GSP per state....WHICH HAS NO RELATIONSHIP TO INCOME TAX paid. - Reply to this comment
- But I will be kind and educate --
Quasi-governmental entities and political entities are not the same thing. - Reply to this comment
