Medicare And Medicaid

The Anne Arundel County Council voted 4-2 last night against a resolution that would have urged Maryland congressmen to oppose federal cuts in Medicare and Medicaid.The resolution, which was not binding, would have asked all eight members of the congressional delegation to vote against any legislation seeking reductions in federal money spent on Medicare and Medicaid.A number of senior citizens at the meeting urged council members to approve the resolution."We're being swept away by this thing, and it's going to affect a lot of people -- and not just elderly people," said Ernie Crofoot of Bowie, co-chairman of the Senior Citizens Coalition.

In recent years, skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers across the nation have endured billions of dollars in cuts for the care of elder and disabled beneficiaries of Medicare. Here in Maryland, in three of the past five years, payments for the care of Marylanders most in need were cut more than $180 million. Through outstanding public/private partnership, only recently have these cuts been reduced. However, possible additional state cuts loom on the horizon. Now Congress is looking at ways to potentially make additional cuts to Medicare and Medicaid through the Super Committee and by other means.

WASHINGTON -- In a move fraught with political risk, key congressional Republicans said yesterday that they would move to cut spending on the health care that the elderly and the poor receive from the government over the next seven years.Seeking to balance the federal budget and avert a predicted bankruptcy of the Medicare trust fund in 2001, the leaders of the House and Senate budget committees said they would produce plans that curtail the growth in Medicare and Medicaid."We have a great health care system," said Sen. Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.

I find that the recent editorial in The Sun regarding Social Security falls far short of the reality of the situation ("Social Security sets off sparks," Sept. 14). Joe Biden said the same thing the editorial did on a CNN interview before the last Republican debate. It's easy. "A simple thing," he said. If it's so simple, then why hasn't anyone fixed it? Because it's not simple. Yes, in a vacuum Social Security is relatively easy to fix. If we didn't have the exploding costs of Medicare and Medicaid.

WASHINGTON - President Bush said yesterday that he would nominate Dr. Mark McClellan, head of the Food and Drug Administration, to take over as administrator of the Woodlawn agency that oversees the Medicare and Medicaid programs. If confirmed by the Senate, McClellan, 40, will be taking charge of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as Bush's prescription-drug plan for seniors is implemented. Bush's plan to add drug coverage to Medicare, which won approval in Congress over Democratic objections, is expected to be hotly debated in the presidential campaign.

With continued losses in Medicare, Medicaid and its FreeState HMO, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield reported reduced earnings yesterday for the fourth quarter and flat earnings for the year. The insurer has gotten out of Medicare and is completing a pullout from Medicaid, after booking $18.7 million in losses last year on the two government programs. CareFirst is looking to restructure FreeState and will be seeking approval from regulators to combine FreeState with its successful CapitalCare HMO. "Because of the difficult decisions we were obligated to make due to revenue shortfalls, CareFirst is now poised for a successful year in 2001," William L. Jews, CareFirst's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement accompanying the earnings release.

Three HMOs have cut back participation in a state program covering people eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid after the state health department reduced premium rates and demanded reimbursement of overpayments.Joseph M. Millstone, director of the Medical Care Policy Administration for the health department, said Prudential HealthCare and United HealthCare will end their participation tomorrow. FreeState Health Plan will continue for another month in Baltimore City and Baltimore County only, while it evaluates whether to continue.

Reflecting losses in its Medicare and Medicaid managed care programs, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield reported yesterday a 5.8 percent drop in second-quarter income to $20.5 million, compared with $21.7 million a year ago.Margins from commercial insurance products were "flat to slightly up," said G. Mark Chaney, executive vice president and chief financial officer for CareFirst, which operates the Maryland and District of Columbia Blue Cross Blue Shield plans.However,...

CareFirst BlueCross Blue- Shield, the state's largest health insurer, reported yesterday that profit in its second quarter jumped 31.9 percent, an improvement it credited largely to its exit from the Medicare and Medicaid HMO business. The insurer said its operating profit for the three months that ended June 30 was $22.2 million, compared with $16.8 million in the second quarter of 2000. Its Medicare and Medicaid HMOs together accounted for $3.8 million in losses during last year's second quarter.

WASHINGTON -- Concluding months of negotiations and a two-year standoff, President Clinton and Republican leaders in Congress agreed yesterday on the outlines of a five-year plan to balance the federal budget for the first time since 1969.Details were in flux last night. But the major planks of the accord are in place, and a formal announcement of the deal could be made as early as today.The plan calls for both Republican tax cuts and some new social spending demanded by Clinton. Savings would come mostly from slowing the growth of Medicare and Medicaid, extending the airline-ticket tax and other levies, and using more optimistic economic projections than Republicans have accepted in the past.

Water service was restored Tuesday afternoon to most Woodlawn residents and the offices of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Baltimore County, a utility official said. A water main break Monday left the federal workplace without water, and the repair caused a water cutoff to nearby residents. Kurt Kocher, a spokesman for the city public works department, said that by midafternoon crews repaired a 7-foot section of the water main on Rolling Road. He said the broken section was embedded in rock, a factor that added to the repair time.

Does anyone remember President Clinton's 1995 government shutdown as a result of a fight with Newt Gingrich? It has been estimated it impacted all sectors of the U.S. economy. Health and welfare services for military veterans were curtailed; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped disease surveillance. Toxic waste clean-up work at 609 sites was halted. Other impacts included: the closure of 368 National Park sites and the loss of some 7 million visitors; 200,000 applications for passports and 20,000 to 30,000 applications for visas by foreigners went unprocessed each day; U.S. tourism industries incurred millions of dollars in losses; federal contracts, representing $3.7 billion in spending, were affected adversely.

Paul Ryan, the Republican representative from Wisconsin who heads the House budget committee, deserves tremendous credit for the deficit reduction proposal he unveiled today. While his colleagues are squabbling about a few billion in symbolic cuts to the current year's federal budget — and threatening a government shutdown in the process — he has taken the politically risky but necessary step of advancing a proposal for the next fiscal year and beyond that would tackle the real sources of our federal budget problems: Medicare and Medicaid, corporate tax loopholes, excessive defense spending, agriculture subsidies and more.

Look at what the idiotic Democrats and Republicans are doing in Washington about the budget problems. They are making a big deal about 12 percent of the federal budget and trying to make the public think they are doing their job. What disgusting idiots. What about the 47 percent of the budget that is growing daily? I'm referring, of course, to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. But the morons we elected are only willing to look at things like Head Start and PBS. No wonder I'm registered as an independent.

The MITRE Corporation, which provides systems, engineering, research and information technology support to the federal government, has opened a new office in Woodlawn, Baltimore County officials said Monday. The office will support the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and be located in a former bakery building on Rolling Run Road. The site will also support the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Veterans Affairs. About 40 employees will work from the 22,900-square-foot office space.

General Dynamics Corp. and its subcontractors expect to hire as many as 110 workers in Baltimore County who will work on computer systems for a new government program that will help retirees receive health care coverage, officials said Thursday. The defense contractor said Thursday that its information technology division won an $80 million award to work on the Department of Health and Human Services' Early Retiree Reinsurance Program. The program is part of the health care reform package that was passed this year and is intended to help retirees who are not yet eligible for Medicare obtain affordable insurance.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton and congressional Republicans huddled for hours at the White House yesterday in a snowbound attempt to bridge the differences in their respective seven-year plans to balance the budget.The Republicans arrived with an offer that would scale back their proposed trims in Medicare and Medicaid by some $63 billion. But the GOP leaders said flatly that they wouldn't go much lower."This is about as close to a last offer as you can get," said House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich, who was at the White House yesterday.

Dr. Donald Berwick is a natural to help lead American health care reform, and his appointment by President Barack Obama to be the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) signals a new role for doctors. Dr. Berwick, president of the Institute for Health Care Improvement, is renowned for his experience in changing health care practices for the better. He is a champion of health care improvement based on changes by professionals who have the knowledge to make it happen.

By now, anybody with a pulse is well aware that Barack Obama is not what he said he was when seeking our votes for president. He's not a conciliator, he's an ideologue. His "transformative" presidency is one seeking to transform the American system into a European-style social democracy, with the emphasis on "social." His overarching goal — judging from his actions — is to further expand an already stifling federal bureaucracy into such a monolith that private activity will be unable to escape its control.