I have already posted about the failure to pass, but wanted add the comments from another site here, from the physician’s prospectus…the site has the entire break down on which voted against the bill, so there’s a list of Senators who might be able to use a little contact. The question is what are they doing with the extra 13%? As I had quipped in my prior post, they are opening offices in China. We just went through an audit here in California by the California Medical Association that brings a lot of questions to the surface. In another related story in the state of Washington, here’s another look at profits…there’s a lot of money sitting around on “reserve” it appears…BD 
“the big three carriers in Washington, Regence BlueShield, Premera Blue Cross and Group Health Cooperative saw profits increase from $11 million in 2002 to $243 million in 2003 and $431 million in 2006. Their cash surplus went from $833 million in 2002 to $2.2 billion (with a "B") in 2006. Interestingly enough they did it while covering less people.”
Republicans just can't seem to swallow a cut to the Medicare Advantage program to "finance" the reversal of the physician fee cut. I'd like to see what happens if we introduce legislation to cut the pay yearly to each member of Congress unless some way to finance a reversal of the cut is found. Something tells me it wouldn't be much of an issue.
The Medicare Advantage program doesn't appear to offer a good value proposition. We have some of these patients in our office, and my office manager was surprised to hear that the insurance company gets reimbursed 113% of usual Medicare rates.
- Medicare Advantage recipients don't get any additional services that I as a doctor can see.
- What are the insurance companies doing with the extra 13%?
- Why can't I get 13% extra?
This program amounts to corporate welfare. We've been trying to make it right again, but many Senate republicans (and the president) seem to think it's ok to fork over $50 billion to the insurance companies for...no benefit.
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