Dems are adamant: “Don’t touch Medicare & Medicaid”.
And, they were equally adamant that ObamaCare would “bend the cost curve”.
Yep, the cost curve is bending …. unfortunately, in the wrong direction.
According to USA Today … Medicare, Medicaid tab keeps growing
Medicare and Medicaid spending rose 10% in the second quarter from a year earlier to a combined annual rate of almost $992 billion.
The two programs are on track to rise $90 billion in 2011 and crack the $1 trillion milestone for the first time.
The latest spending surge in federal health care is driven by more people getting more treatment, not by price increases.
Health care inflation is at its lowest level in more than a decade — a 1.7% annual rate.
Medicare and Medicaid paid a record 57.5% of patient bills for hospital, doctors, drugs and other care in the last quarter, up from 49.3% in 2005.
Ken’s Take:
(1) Good news for Obama: edging closer to single-payer system
(2) No surprise, costs are rising not falling …. did anybody really believe the “bending the cost curve” riff?
(3) Debt deal says that if the super-committee fails to find cuts, doctors’ reimbursement rates will be cut … good luck to Medicare-Medicaid patients trying to find an MD.
The Homa Files 
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