What "smart cuts" are you for in cutting Medicare?

As both parties work on cuts to control our "out of control spending", which do you support? Procedures? Tests? How will cutting Medicare hold down overall medical costs in the US? Do you support raising the eligibility age? I would like to see your answers since we will be voting for these cuts in 2012.

the automatic cuts kick in or if there is an agreement. Here are some articles on proposals and opinions.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-29/bipartisan-spending-cap-could-require-medicare-cuts-like-ryan-s.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/opinion/cut-medicare-help-patients.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

http://www.hometownstations.com/story/14450812/senior-citizens-sound-off-on-proposed-medicare-cuts

Some offer specifics such as testing procedures and so forth. Others more Republican influenced tend to take an axe approach. Should we allow the super committee to decide in order to avoid the automatic cuts to kick in?

The fix is in. Cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are coming, make no mistake. And this is just the beginning, there will be nothing left for us great unwashed masses after they've siphoned off all our money into their nefarious schemes.

Next up: the legal raiding of our 401k and other retirement plans. And you thought we could retire someday. Silly little people.

I don't know why so many Americans can't see it.

Why should you advocate the cutting of social security? Why not push for the downsizing of the military industrial complex instead, there are
about 600,000 groups claiming to represent the United States military, why not start from there, the poor did not put us into bankruptcy but
greedy corporate individuals did. So stop with the advocation of social security cuts.

Evidently you don't know me. I'm against the cuts and will not vote for ANYONE who advocates cuts.

doing harm to our health care. I don't need unnecessary tests that don't accomplish anything healthwise. I don't want to run right to a specialist at the drop of a hat. I think it is sensible to go thru your primary care physician before calling a specialist. He will, just as he has in the past, give me a referral if needed. He treats my hypertension; I don't need a cardiologist. He writes me a scrip for my mammograms and has referred me to a general surgeon. This is the way it should work everywhere. Primary care physicians are high on my list. They are valuable and there needs to be more of them...

you saved for your retirement and have a good income from your IRA. If I make over $25000 in my case being single it subjects my SS to taxes. To make it simple (if) I get $5000 over that limit I pay tax on the $5000 and it also makes a large percentage of my SS income taxable. In my case the (additional income) I get is in effect taxed at a 37% rate then add state taxes you get 42%. That is a higher tax rate than even Warren Buffet would pay. Another point your IRA is taxed as regular income. In my case anyway the biggest part of the IRA balance came from long term capital gains which Warren Buffet would only pay %15 on.

been chosen or to agree on the super committee recommendations.

cuts I would be in favor of. NONE.

Hire more MSW and see how people are using services. I see a lot of people at the wrong level of care eating up unnecessary medicare services.

I'm fully aware of fraud but has there been any estimates?

There is NO need for a SuperCONgress or NEW legislation to stop Fraud & Theft.
Simply prosecute the criminals.

Offer a bounty for the reporting of Fraud & Theft, possibly a percentage of recovered funds.

but fraud and theft as well..

It has not been raised in over 25 years.

just to simple to consider I reckon...

You know, the so called "fairness" approach in "tax relief".

I think if we cut out the these two groups then we will have plenty of money. I think they would love to be on their own.

there is little that can be done. Here is an example, when my father was in the hospital years ago his doctor went on a overseas vacation for a month. When we got the "this is not a bill" thing from Medicare they had paid that doctor $130 a day for a total of $3900 for the month. They also paid the doctor that filled in for him $130 a day for a total of $3900. On top of that there where several others that were paid that we never even seen or knew who they where. I called and complained to Medicare about it and I was told that was standard practice, the doctor on vacation was being paid for managing the case. That is what the insurance industry has done to health care it's like the cost plus thing that industry had in WWII. The more they inflate the costs the more money they make. The medical industry charges $1 million they say take 10% profit on their cost for profits or $100,000. They charge $10 million, walla you rake in $1 million, the insurance company doesn't care they just raise their rates. As long as Medicare has to work under that system I can't see where much can be done.

On Edit: The politicians say we aren't cutting Medicare on the patients we are cutting payments to the providers. That will in effect ration health care, if the medical industry can't rip off Medicare as much they will just drop Medicare patients.

in my situation. I have sleep apnea and require a CPAP mask. The company providing the equipment sends me a new mask every three months. I really don't need a new mask that often and could get away with using the same one for 6 or 8 months and maybe longer. I have asked the company not to send me one that often. Medicare is billed by the company for the new masks. If you multiply these charges for un-needed items for everyone in the country using a CPAP, just think of the wasted money being spent. I even saw a commercial for diabetic cook books that were "free" if you are on Medicare. Where does this stop? I do feel there are places that Medicare could cut wasteful spending.

think I am wealthy but my SS is being reduced because I am single and get over $25000 total income from my pension and savings including 1/2 of SS. So in my case if I make over around $17000 from a pension and my IRA that I worked 40 years in a steel mill for I am means tested. That puts me in the wealthy catagory to some I guess.

are some on DU that think if you make (any) income in addition to SS it should be deducted dollar for dollar off your benefits. In that case what would be the point in collective bargaining for a pension or saving for a retirement.

:silly:

Same solution works for social security.

but the republicans just brush right past you and immediately go to cutting benefits. That's their REAL agenda. They don't want to save Medicare. They want to finish it off for good...

;)

To defraud the government, waste and abusive programs should be shelved also, these are cuts that would be
be acceptable to the public I'm sure.

We need the public-private plan that is Medicare to be available to all of us.

Medical care privately delivered, between us and our doctors. Payments publicly administered, with the very low overhead Medicare has, accountable to us all as taxpayers.

We know Medicare Part E would save many businesses lots of money. We know it is desperately needed to bring us up to the level of national health security our industrial competitors have.

But the wonderful feeling of health security makes paying taxes feel good and Republicans can't stand that idea.

My wife and I pay $96.50 each from our SS each year. This program is designed to help seniors for health issues and should not be messed with by the GOOP.

Shorten patent protection for drugs.
Reimportation.

And cracking down on abuse -- outright fraud, of course, but also common scenarios like the one in which a Dr. refers all his patients for expensive tests at a lab that he just so happens to be a part-owner of.

My Mom has a feeding tube and we use one refillable bag per day - it's a plastic bag that probably cost 40 cents to make - yet the supplier bills Medicare $3000 for 30 bags. Medicare doesn't pay that much, I think they actually pay only about $10 per bag rather than the $100 per bag requested. And the liquid nutrition is billed for something like 5 times what Medicare actually allows to be paid for it. This is medically necessary because she can't swallow any more. Her doctor also prescribed a new wheelchair for her, and we got one through a large home health supply company. But it turned out to be a rental, and on the monthly receipt we got I noticed they were charging Medicare $186 per month. I turned it back in and we bought our own new chair for $139 from costco.com. These $139 wheelchairs only last about a year, then they become too loose and unreliable. But I'd rather just pay it once a year than have Medicare billed more than that each month! I'm fine with the doctors getting paid their normal rates by Medicare. But these third-party suppliers are really trying to gouge Medicare for all they can get.