Coalition pushes new proposal to avoid Medicare, Medicaid cuts
Source: Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON With President Obama and congressional Republicans turning to address the looming budget crisis, a coalition of consumer groups, labor unions and major employers is pushing new approaches to control federal health spending without cutting benefits for seniors and others who rely on Medicare and Medicaid.
The plan, released Thursday by the National Coalition on Health Care, includes several potentially controversial proposals such as a new penny-per-ounce federal tax on sweetened beverages and tougher penalties on under-performing hospitals.
But coalition President John Rother said policies that make healthcare more efficient and change Americans unhealthy behavior will be critical if policymakers want to avoid simply shifting more costs on seniors and other vulnerable Americans who rely on government health programs.
Unless we do the kinds of things that we are talking about, Im afraid we are going to see some meat-ax kind of cuts, said Rother, a veteran Washington health policy expert and former AARP senior executive. This is an effort to avoid some of the more heavy-handed strategies.
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Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-coalition-healthcare-medicare-cuts-20121108,0,935875.story
By Noam N. Levey
November 8, 2012, 11:01 a.m.
msongs
(67,413 posts)Vincardog
(20,234 posts)jwirr
(39,215 posts)bread_and_roses
(6,335 posts)Tax the rich. Tax the Corporations. We can "solve this problem" pretty much by just letting the Bush tax cuts expire.
I'm sure the food police will love this one. I am as much an opponent of the vile corn syrup as anyone, but trying to police people's food choices by enacting regressive taxes is NOT a solution.