By Bill Peckham
The Senate Finance Committee did not take up Senator Lincoln's amendments today (Tuesday), they are scheduled to reconvene tomorrow at 10AM in "Open Executive Session to Consider an Original Bill Providing for Health Care Reform". There is still time to contact your Senator if they serve on the Senate Finance Committee. Tell Congress to not extend MSP for people on dialysis.
I missed this article when it came out in August, Cuts in Government Spending Would Actually Boost Profits for this Unusual Stock. Apparently it is well understood on Wall Street that cutting the dialysis entitlement would boost provider profits:
During most budget cycles, a handful of powerful politicians regularly propose this type of budget cut. Specifically, they put forward that the government could save money by decreasing the dialysis benefit. In 2007, for instance, the House wanted to ax $500 million from dialysis funding -- a cut that could have meant billions in additional profits for dialysis providers.It happened again the following year. President Bush's 2009 budget sought to extend the period during which insurance must pay for dialysis treatments (before Medicare takes over) from 30 months to 60 months for large employers. The move would have saved Medicare $1.1 billion over five years, but it would have meant many times that in additional revenue for dialysis providers.
Remember, all the treatments are exactly the same, but the fewer that Medicare pays for -- and the more that private insurers pay for -- the more profits dialysis providers will generate.
If health insurance reform does pass I think it will make sense to look at MSP in the context of the new system. Until then boosting provider profits in the absence of program reforms is not the direction we should be going.
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