July 01, 2008 08:56 PM UTC

For Wayne Allard it is more important to privatize Medicare than to pay doctors

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• by: MileHighDaredevil

As the Denver Post says today:

(snip)

Last week, the House overwhelmingly approved legislation that would stop the cuts for at least a year. The Senate fell one vote short.

The Colorado Medical Society isn’t taking this second chance lightly.

“We’ve been lobbying the hell out of Sen. Allard,” said Edie Sonn, director for the division of public affairs for the Colorado Medical Society.

U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard voted against the legislation that would have suspended the cutbacks. U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar supported it.

“No one has been a stronger advocate of fixing the physician reimbursement formula than I have been,” Allard said in a prepared statement. “However, the Democrat plan temporarily fixes the physician reimbursement rate by permanently damaging the choices and quality of care that tens of millions of seniors receive through the Medicare Advantage program.”

“Congress should be trying to provide seniors with more options and more competition to drive down cost and spur quality and innovation,” he said.

Cuts could limit doctors

Sonn argues that if the rollbacks take effect, they would cause some of the 9,500 doctors in Colorado who have an active arrangement with Medicare to stop taking new patients or even turn away existing ones.

According to a recent American Medical Association survey, 60 percent of doctors throughout the United States reported they would have to limit the number of new Medicare patients if payments are cut 10 percent in 2008.

“If people (on Medicare) can’t find doctors, they will start to use the emergency room,” Laubach said. “They may clog up that system, which will affect everyone.”

Steve Graff: 303-954-1661 or sgraff@denverpost.com

http://www.denverpost.com/news…

Maybe you don’t think much about Medicare. But I sure have.

My mother was on Medicare then a Medicare Advantage program until she died recently. Medicare Advantage takes advantage of the US Government and does little to help patients. It is costing the Feds more than it was supposed to. It is nothing but a covert scheme to privatize a program that has worked very well for about 40 years. http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourh…

Wayne Allard, go take your human caused climate change denials and your anti-government supported social issues agenda and….