Cancer drug payments being cut for Medicare patients. Time to get mad.

[madfloridian]

For the uninformed who will think this is Medicaid....it is not. Everyone is forced on Medicare at age 65. MediCAID is for low income only. These cuts will affect all Americans age 65 and over .

Read this:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040908/hl_nm/health_medicare_cancer_dc

I starting posting about this last October. I have gotten very little attention to it. I hope people will notice now and start yelling. We have dealt with cancer this year, and with Medicare. So far so good. Very little out of pocket. HOWEVER this is going to change now.

SNIP..."WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Medicare payment cuts will leave more than half of clinics and doctors' offices that provide cancer-fighting chemotherapy unable to cover costs of some key drugs, oncologists said on Wednesday."

SNIP..." The reductions may be close to double what the government anticipates, according to a survey of pricing data by the American Society of Clinical Oncologists.


The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has estimated an 8 percent average cut in reimbursements for chemotherapy and other medicines. ASCO concluded the reduction would average 15 percent for the 100 practices it surveyed...."

I am sending this article to my congressman. I hope others will not pay attention. Even if a person is not on Medicare yet, they may have parents of grandparents on it. Someone will pay for this.

[smirkymonkey]

1. This is an outrage!

Sounds like "kill the poor" is part of the Republican Party agenda as well.

Kick! :kick:

[Cleita]

2. I'm mad all right. I have been mad for a long time.

Anyone who has had a relative who has battled cancer knows how expensive it is and a major part of the treatment is usually from drugs. I hope these creeps all come down with it, and they probably will with what they are doing to destroy our environmental and pollution laws.

[Spinzonner]

3. Yes it is of concern but

I suggest you also study the issue a bit too.

There is evidence that the payment system was being gamed and that the drug payments were being padded to make up for costs elsewhere.

[madfloridian]

4. But see, that is not the fault of the seniors! Do not blame the victims.

That is not a good idea to take benefits from seniors who did not do the padding.

I rather resent your comment.....blaming the victim.

[Spinzonner]

5. Who blamed the victims ?

I said that there's more to the story.

It's a ham-handed solution but the government has limited tools to change the mindsets of service and product suppliers unless they want to make a bigger and even more cumbersome system with another set of problems and inefficiencies.

[madfloridian]

6. I have been researching this for two years....since I learned Bush's goal.

is to do away with the Medicare system altogether. Of course there is more to any story, but cutting down on payment to doctors and raising the cost to seniors on fixed incomes is just wrong. It is indefensible.

This is a topic I will not argue about. A society that will spend billions on war in a country that did us no harm, and that will cut back care to the poor and elderly is just dead wrong.

I know a whole damn generation has been raised to think we are not our brother's keepers. I know why. The Heritage Foundation is one reason, Gingrich's Contract ON America is one reason.

It is so wrong I will not even discuss it with you further.

[lovuian]

7. Here we go Killing them off so they don't have to pay their

Social Security

[DeepModem Mom]

8. kick