The one abiding principle of the politics of medicine: Overprovide to the healthy and underprovide to the sick:
- CMS, the agency that runs Medicare, is proposing a set of tweaks that would raise the fees Medicare pays for primary care by 6% to 8%.
- Medicare payments to cardiologists would be cut by 11% overall, with certain procedures (echocardiograms, cardiac catheterizations) facing steeper cuts.
- Radiologists would see a cut of about 20% for doing high-tech scans such as CTs and MRIs.
I’m afraid this is only the beginning. Cost control to the Obama Administration means an all out war on patients.
This is exactly what they do in Europe.