Obama Now Demanding $622 Billion in Medicare, Medicaid Cuts

June 16, 2009 (LPAC)—Why stop there? In his Saturday pound-of-flesh speech, Barack Obama demanded another $313 billion in cuts in Medicare and Medicaid payments, bringing his current demands to $622 billion over 10 years, as part of the minimally $950 billion he means to siphon to the medical insurance companies and other conspirators, at the expense of the lives of millions of Americans.

Or as CQ Politics sugarcoated it, "Obama used his weekly radio address to call for slowing annual Medicare payment increases to hospitals, medical device-makers, outpatient treatment facilities, and other providers in order to encourage them to deliver more cost-effective care."

The White House broke down the latest cuts into four categories:

$110 billion in across-the-board "productivity adjustments" to Medicare payment increases.

$106 billion cuts in Federal subsidies to hospitals. These so-called disproportionate share, or DSH, payments typically go to institutions that treat a disproportionately large percentage of low-income patients, or to teaching hospitals that tend to see more complex cases.

$75 billion in unspecified cuts to Medicare prescription drug payments.

$22 billion by cutting payment rates for imaging services, skilled nursing and inpatient rehabilitation facilities, and long-term care hospitals. The regime also expects some of the savings in this category to come from efforts to cut waste, fraud and abuse, including monitoring physicians who order a high volume of costly services.

The last category includes some recommendations made by the Medicare Advisory Payment Commission, or MedPAC. Legislation put forward this month by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.), of the family which has sponsored euthanasia campaigns in the United States, would make the recommendations of MedPAC legally binding.