1825 K Street, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20006
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Government spending on Medicare and Medicaid is spiraling our of control, and the best way to address that problem in the fiscal 2009 budget is to restrict federal payments doctors and hospitals, but leave programs like Medicare Advantage, which subsidizes private insurance companies, untouched.
Cuts in payments to doctors and hospitals will only worsen the underfunding of our medical infrastructure and increase disincentives for doctors to care for Medicare and Medicaid patients. What's really needed is reform: Our country's current health care system wastes hundreds of billions of dollars in administrative and advertising expenses, and in efforts to shift or deny payment. Medicare's administrative costs are up to four times less than those of the private insurance companies subsidized by Medicare Advantage. Congress should resist the Bush administration's cost-cutting proposals and instead set the stage for real reform of our health care system.
1825 K Street, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20006
202-955-5665 (tel) | 202-955-5606 (fax) | www.ourfuture.org