Mayo Vs. Medicare

Investors.com ^ | January 4, 2010 | INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY Staff

[Kaslin]

Health Reform: President Obama suggested last summer that the Mayo Clinic was the model for government medical care. On Monday, the Mayo Clinic in Arizona stopped taking Medicare patients. Now what?

If the nonprofit Mayo Clinic is "what works," as the president believes, then it's clear that government health care doesn't. If Washington can't manage a system with fewer than 50 million participants well enough for those who paid for it to get care, then it sure can't run a program that will eventually include every person in the country.

Obama's comment didn't go unnoticed at the Mayo Clinic. While it supports some elements of health reform, the famed practice known for its high-quality care said that under the Democrats' reforms the "real losers will be the citizens of the United States."

Though the Democrats' plans for medical care haven't become law, the losing has already begun for the roughly 3,000 Medicare patients served by the Mayo Clinic in Glendale, Ariz.

They will either have to pay cash for medical services or find other doctors who still accept patients in the government's health care program for the elderly. Those aren't enviable choices.

One, no American who has paid into the Medicare system for his or her entire working life wants to begin paying for health care out of his or her own pocket. It's cruel to force workers to fund a system they can't draw benefits from.

Two, doctors everywhere, not just at the Arizona Mayo Clinic, are dropping Medicare patients because of the government's meager reimbursements. And the pace of doctors opting out of the system will only pick up if $500 billion is slashed from Medicare funding, as is planned in Washington's health care reform, putting even more elderly Americans at risk.

[afraidfortherepublic]

I should have said look for Account at the top of the page — then go to My Locale — then click Wisconsin. His reception was poor at both meetings, but he didn’t seem to care — called us “you conservatives” and indicated that our votes against him would be offset by solid support that he has in other parts of the state. I certainly hope that he is wrong.

[tickles]

Mayo already had a clinic/hospital in Dubai (?) So they are no longer getting as many Saudi patients as they had in the past. Those are being treated in their own country.

[Trust but Verify]

Thanks for the recap. Feingold is a wimp, scheduling his listening sessions during working hours for those of us still lucky enough to have jobs!

[mwl8787]

Good. This means that Feingold is in denial and is whistling past the graveyard.

Someone needs to set up an ongoing live thread of Town Halls and the receptions that representatives and senators are getting from coast to coast. More broadly, why there is no coordination among various factions opposed to this monstrosity is a mystery to me. I work 60+ hours a week in the private sector. Right to Life, Chamber of Commerce, NFIB, talk radio, tons of organizations need to get their crap together and wake up.