On the recordApril 13, 2011
The realities of the Republican budget are starting to come into focus, especially health care. Vouchers to insurance companies will cost seniors and society more. Today, Members of Congress are being inundated by visits from hospitals and health care providers who are in a panic about the Medicaid block grant that will allow the Federal Government to shift its burden for the poor and the disabled to States who often cannot or will not make up the difference in the fund loss. Most disappointing, Republicans have abandoned the work on Medicare reform. The reform provisions in the Affordable Care Act used to be bipartisan. Instead of increasing the total cost of health care and shifting the burdens to the elderly, poor and disabled, we should be taking our medical spending--already the highest in the world--and showing how we can get more out of it. ____________________
