quinnscommentary

A deal is a deal or is it? Here is a summary of the deal made by the Obama administration for hospitals to help save $155 billion for health care reform. What do you think are the chances that anyone will have any idea of these savings or more important, how does this kind of deal help the average American covered by private health benefits? The answer to the last part is simply ( unless you believe hosptals can give up this revenue with no consequences) the private sector will pick up the slack.

And I have another question, if the insurance company premiums are the cause of our woes as many would have us believe, how is it that hospitals are not critized for over charging based on this deal?

The leading hospital groups – the American Hospital Association, the Federation of American Hospitals, and the Catholic Health Association – agreed to accept $155 billion less in Medicare reimbursements over 10 years. In exchange, Sen. Max Baucus (D) of Montana, the Finance Committee chair, agreed to exempt hospitals from the cost-cutting regime under a proposed new Medicare Commission for its first few years of operation. That deal was not clear until the committee released legislative language on its bill. The Congressional Budget Office, for example, was not aware that hospitals were exempt from cuts when it estimated the bill’s impact on the federal deficit.