One of the several pieces of ‘must pass’ legislation before the end of the year is the ongoing ‘doc fix.’ Essentially it is an increase in the appropriations for Medicare because the formula for the entitlement program sucks and does not accurately cover rising Medicare costs. But, maybe it actually does.
So much of what I see in government work has the private sector basing its costs on what the government is willing to pay. When I am on temporary duty for work (such as training), the government gives me a maximum dollar amount that I can spend on lodging (and a separate amount for food and other expenses). Amazingly, most of the hotels in the DC area charge that exact rate for rooms. In fact, on my last trip to DC, the government rates changed during my trip there and the rate for my hotel changed to go with it.
So, maybe one of the (many) reasons that health care costs are going up is because the government is willing to pay that amount. Perhaps, if we cut the amount we pay, but require the same services for doctors to collect this new, lower amount, then health care costs for everyone will go down.
There is, of course, a line at which the doctors will choose to stop taking Medicare patients because they aren’t covering their costs, but that line is pretty far down there. The government pays for too large of a chunk of the work for doctors to turn away so many patients. (A few probably would and we’d hear all about these stories of doctors refusing patients, but it would be a significant minority).
So, I think we should take a page out of the Republicans handbook and starve the beast. DON’T pass the doc fix and voila, we just saved millions, if not billions of dollars.
