Re: Kiddie's health insurance newest Pork Package for Dems

Josh Hill <usereplyto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 18:32:50 -0400, Kurt Ullman <kurtullman@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

he House has "quietly funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to
specific hospitals and health care providers" under the SCHIP
reauthorization bill passed earlier this month, the New York Times
reports (Pear, New York Times, 8/12). The House SCHIP bill would reduce
payments to Medicare Advantage plans and increase the federal cigarette
tax by 45 cents per pack to increase funding for SCHIP by about $50
billion over five years. The bill also would make a number of revisions
to Medicare (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 8/9).

According to a Times review of the legislation, the House bill would
"direct millions of dollars a year to about 40 favored hospitals by
increasing their Medicare payments," mostly "at the request of
Democratic lawmakers." Many of the earmarks would reclassify suburban
hospitals as located in urban areas, which generally receive higher
Medicare reimbursements to cover higher wages for hospital workers,
according to the Times. Although Democrats have promised greater
transparency of earmarks and other projects, the bill describes the
hospitals "in cryptic terms, so that identifying a beneficiary is like
solving a riddle," the Times reports.

House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chair Pete Stark (D-Calif.)
said that increasing payments to some hospitals is a way for Congress to
improve "the equity and fairness" of Medicare reimbursements. Under
Medicare, "you are basically setting prices, and the system is clumsy,"
Stark said.

Health Subcommittee ranking member Dave Camp (R-Mich.) criticized a
proposed adjustment that would reclassify Bay Area Medical Center --
located on the border of Wisconsin and Michigan -- as located in
Chicago. Camp called the provision "absurd on its face," adding, "Every
hospital in America would like to be reclassified" into a labor market
with higher wages.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/79569.php

The title of this thread is misleading, insofar as it implies that
the primary purpose and function of this bill is the provision of
pork. Most spending bills, Republican or Democratic, have pork in them
-- it's frequently the only way legislators can get good legislation
passed -- and so far, Democrats have slashed earmarks by half from the
Republican Congress.

I'm not happy about this or any other pork, but the real obscenity
here is that George W. Bush has sworn to veto a bill that would
provide medical insurance to uninsured children. That's right, the
same Bush who gave a huge tax cut to the super rich. What a creep.

It's looking to do dick-all for uninsured children, it is instead
looking to benefit selected hospitals. It's money being routed from
the average to the select. The usual crap to be expected when there
are politicians are involved.

--
The sane answer to insanity is madness.
.

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