The Washington Post reported yesterday on a study done by Richard S. Foster of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  The non-partisan report stated that the provision in the healthcare legislation proposed that cuts more than $500 billion from future Medicare spending would reduce benefits for some seniors and jeopardize access to medical care for others.  That is a rather obvious conclusion.  The legislation plans to add more than 30 million people to the ranks of the insured, many of them through Medicaid, at the same time it plans to cut the amount of spending on Medicare and Medicaid.  They are increasing the number of people served while cutting the amount of money available.  That’s bad enough, but they are doing it at the time when the baby boomers are reaching Medicare age.  This makes no sense at all.

The article points out:

“In its most recent analysis of the House bill, the CBO noted that Medicare spending per beneficiary would have to grow at roughly half the rate it has over the past two decades to meet the measure’s savings targets, a dramatic reduction that many budget and health policy experts consider unrealistic.”

The only realistic way to cut spending per beneficiary is to reduce services and care available.  The only way to maintain the level of care and add 30 million people is to spend more money.  This healthcare bill has the potential to be very expensive.  According to Republicans, the report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services forecasts an increase in spending of $289 billion.  The Democrats argue that the increase in costs will be offset by ‘Medicare savings.’  I guess I wonder why if all these ‘Medicare savings’ are there, we have not taken advantage of them before.