This became something of a standard talking point during both the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections. As the story went, Democrats cared about seniors and their particular needs. Republicans wanted to cut Medicare and were plotting to kill your grandparents. My, what a difference one election makes, eh? Check out one of the health care amendments which passed in the Senate over the weekend.
By a vote of 53 to 41, the Senate on Saturday rejected a Republican effort to block cutbacks in payments to home health agencies that provide nursing care and therapy to homebound Medicare beneficiaries.
Republicans voted against the cuts, saying they would hurt some of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens. Most Democrats supported the cutbacks, saying they would eliminate waste and inefficiency in home care.
I think everyone on both sides of this debate can at least agree that we’d like to see waste and fraud eliminated or vastly reduced in the health care system. But is home health care a place to start looking to cut out some of the costs to pay for this massive overhaul? Gary Gross at Let Freedom Ring highlights an interview by Tom Hauser with Neil Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota Home Care Association.
HAUSER: How many Minnesotans right now have home care?
JOHNSON: Well, we’re looking at…the estimates are 68,000-70,0000 people last year, in 2007 excuse me, & 28,000 received Medicare services & another 30-40,000 received medical assistance services.
HAUSER: And what’s gonna be the practical impact if these cuts were to go through?
JOHNSON: Well, certainly access is an issue & we’re certainly worried about that but the many agencies are hanging on the edge right now. Medicare has been a good payer for most providers in the state of Minnesota & combined with medical assistance & some waiver payments & some private payments & long-term care but Medicare has been a key factor in providing needed skill services to the citizens of Minnesota.
HAUSER: There seems to be a disconnect here because people look at home care as a way to bring down costs that are often associated with hospital stays. I know 60 Minutes just did a segment on this & they said it was a good way for people at the end of their lives of saving spending $5-10,000 a day so why’s that being targeted?
JOHNSON: Well, I think it’s an easy target because people don’t really understand what home care providers do. But, yeah, we think we’re the best alternative out there. It’s efficient. It’s productive & it’s where people want to spend the rest of their lives…
This looks like one of those “good news / bad news” stories. The good news is that the Democrats seem to have finally gotten the message that the country is not going to tolerate some hugely expensive boondoggle with the name “health care reform” stapled on it, and they’re going into full blown war council mode to find a way to reduce costs. The bad news, as some of us have been predicting all along, is that in order to do it they’re going to start slashing elements of the current health care system which actually work, along with sneaking in as many taxes as they can manage. (See the new proposed taxes on all manner of Class III and above medical devices and taxes on so called “Cadillac health care plans” currently used by many middle class citizens.)
The current debate in the Senate is going far past whether or not we should allow a disastrous “public option” to thrash 1/6th of the nation’s economy into a blood mess. It is also highlighting a fresh examination of exactly which portions of the current system – still one of the best in the world which finds more than 80% of Americans satisfied with it – do work and which may need some trimming.
There is potential for useful, meaningful reform out there, but the Democrats are sprinting down all the wrong roads to find it. At this point I’m not sure which would be better… massively reforming the current proposals to create something which is both useful and fiscally responsible, or just trashing the whole thing and starting over with a leaner, meaner bill from scratch.