Comment: Re:Obama knows how to play politics if anything. (Score 2, Informative) 834
A tentative deal struck late Tuesday between House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) would cut federal healthcare spending by $21.1 billion.
The savings would be used to pay for a "doc fix" that would eliminate a scheduled 27.4 percent reduction in Medicare physician payment rates for 10 months.
Savings include:
- A $5 billion cut to the health law's $15 billion prevention trust fund;
- The elimination of $2.5 billion in enhanced Medicaid payments to Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina;
- A $4 billion reduction in so-called Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments to hospitals that take care of people without insurance;
- A $6.8 billion reduction in federal payments to hospitals that collect "bad debt" from insolvent patients, down to 60 percent; and
- Cuts to how much Medicare pays for clinical laboratory tests.
How is it that reducing the funding by 33% *isn't* an attack on women if reducing the fund by a lesser amount *is*?