What Kind of Health Care Legislation Will We Face Next Year?February 2008
In 2009 President Bush released a $3.1 trillion dollar budget request that could have reduced Medicare spending by up to $178 billion over 5 years, leading us all to wonder what the
health insurance situation would be like for the next American President.
Well, now we know.
Over the course of 10 years, Bush's budget request would have reduced Medicare spending by $560 billion dollars. According to the
Kaiser Daily Report, one Democratic congressional aide estimated that at least $115 billion dollars of the overall reduction in Medicare spending would have resulted from decreased reimbursements to hospitals, nursing homes, and home health agencies. However "hospitals and other providers in traditional Medicare would face the sharpest cuts."
Now the real question is this, what kind of
health care system will we have if we made these kinds of drastic cuts to our hospitals and nursing homes? And, how would these cuts have impacted health insurance premiums?
One group in particular, veterans, will definitely have a much harder road ahead of them in 2009. Bush's budget request also reduced funds for health care programs for veterans, and would have increased the health care fees for non-disabled veterans in order to raise $2.1 billion in revenue over the next five years
Not surprisingly, Democrats and Republicans argued in response to this budget. It received "condemnation from House Democratic leaders for continuing 'failed' policies and praise from Republican leaders for starting the annual conversation in a fiscally sound manner."
Facts on:
Health Insurance Challenges
Did you know...
Over 10 years, President Bush's new 2009 budget request would reduce Medicare spending by about $560 billion?
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Everyone agrees that the budget crisis of today is definitely going to impact the health insurance of tomorrow. Democrats who want universal health insurance are going to have a very difficult time paying for it, insinuating that the health care market isn't going to change as dramatically as we would like.
Which in turn also means that consumers must keep shopping around for the best coverage they can find right now, and hope that their situation improves next year.
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