U.S. Medicare Battle Heats Up Again

Washington, DC (AHN) - After Democrats tried for changes to the nation's Medicare program strange alliances formed with groups spending heavily on lobbyists and advertisements to promote their agenda.

All the groups said that their only concern was for the older people affected by the legislation without mentioning their own financial interests. While saying that their only concern was for older people the health insurance companies and nursing homes lined up against doctors and the AARP, all while failing to mention their own financial interests.

Now the Medicare battle is heating up again as Congress prepares to tackle the Medicare bill again.

The American Medical Association and AARP endorse the Democrat's bill and joined forces to run advertisements stating the bill would preserve access to medical care for patients and lower the out of pocket costs for seniors.

It would preserve access by paying doctors more; the legislation would pay doctors who treat Medicare patients an additional $65 billion over the next decades. That would help ensure access to medical care for AARP's 39 million members over age 50 that sometimes have a hard time finding a doctor who will accept new Medicare patients.

Because Medicare has often paid less than doctor's ordinary and customary fees, some physicians limit Medicare patients to a percentage of the total patients they take care of to keep from losing money.

But the legislation would also slash $157 billion, over the next decade, from planned payments to medical companies that operate Medicare maintenance organizations under the Medicare Advantage program.

That would push seniors out of such plans and leave them paying more for the medical care out of pocket, insurance companies said in ads they have run.

It would also jeopardize the quality of care seniors in nursing homes receive, slash thousands of jobs in the nursing home industry and return Medicare funding to the levels of nearly a decade ago, nursing homes warned in their ads.