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Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequester.
By Sarah Kliff, Updated: April 3, 2013
Cancer clinics across the country have begun turning away thousands of Medicare patients, blaming the sequester budget cuts.
Oncologists say the reduced funding, which took effect for Medicare on April 1, makes it impossible to administer expensive chemotherapy drugs while staying afloat financially.
This is expected. Obama doesn't care about the elderly. Obama cut medicare by 800 billion bucks and put that into Obamacare. We know that the death panels are going to start cutting medication for the elderly and let them die. Expected from Obama.
Well the government decided to cut what medicare pays which means medicare doesn't cover the treatment anymore.
It seems their thinking is that if they cut payouts that the cost would come down ?
That and $500 billion was shifted to Obamacare.
Pelosi said it was all fraud and waste.
If providers refuse to provide cancer care to Medicare recipients that's certainly an effective way to reduce costs.
Granted, it's not a good thing, and it's not at all what the Obama administration sold to the American public while ramming Obamacare down the nation's collective throat without a Republican vote, but, it is savings!
Not sure why you're talking about Obamacare when it clearly says that the issue is with the sequester budget cuts.
Hmm, good point, the article does appear to to be citing the sequester.
The Obamacare cuts to Medicare are substantially deeper than the sequester cuts, so I saw the article about providers no longer accepting Medicare combined with other people discussing Obamacare and assumed it was the cause here as well. Mea Culpa .
This problem will at least resolve itself next year as drug companies are forced to lower the prices for the applicable medications to retain sales, but it will be a fun year for people in traditional Medicare needing to find someone to administer them in the interim.
Well I can report that a friend on medicare just was taken as a cancer patient at M.D. Anderson the #1 rate cancer hospital in the nation just end of last week.Budget cuts are far more likely to effect non-insured. Alot of spin goig around on the sequester that isn't fact based form sources with a agenda :IMO.
This is expected. Obama doesn't care about the elderly. Obama cut medicare by 800 billion bucks and put that into Obamacare. We know that the death panels are going to start cutting medication for the elderly and let them die. Expected from Obama.
you must have half a brain.
The ACA did not take 800 billion from medicare. The ACA actually expands medicare benefits by closing the donut hole.
No; medicare was cut by 500 billion over ten years in the ACA to fund the pre-existing insurance subsidies which are in effect now.The closing of the donut hole is only a promise in the future not part of actual act itself. But to get back to the article medicare was exempted from the sequester cuts ;so clinic were not stopped by that. Perhaps your looking at medicare remebursement set to be reduced again this year if allowed to go into effect. Normally its reinstated and only used as a method paying for a bill in scoring under senate rules.Which of course means increased spending in the end;when restoreed.You can read all about that and warning of what it will mean by search for the medicare trustees report to congress.That is if it goes into effect this time.
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