Reply #7: You agree with making those on Medicare and Medicaid pay "higher premiums

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and co-insurance?"

You would agree with Simpson & Bowles? Very sad to read this from a DUer. Here's what you're endorsing. Millions who have to forgo even more medical care than now will have you, Bowles, Simpson & others of their ilk to thank if this happens.

The White House commission, headed by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, proposes to wring nearly $400 billion from health care spending between 2012 and 2020, of which the biggest single element — $110 billion — would come from increased cost-sharing by Medicare beneficiaries. The second commission, an independent panel headed by Pete Domenici and Alice Rivlin, seeks to save $137 billion from Medicare cost-sharing.

Forcing beneficiaries to pay more is a reasonable way to get them to think twice before undergoing an expensive test that may not be critically necessary. But there is a big risk that people on modest incomes might forgo needed care. Beneficiaries might have to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars more out of pocket.

It makes me incredibly sad and more than a little pissed off to see DUers endorsing this.