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Blogs:
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No City of Akron basketball tonight
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Pet telethon re-airs
The Heldenfiles:
Chipmunks "Squeakquel" on DVD/BD March 30
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Late surge gives Zips ugly road win
Tribe Matters:
Blogmail response on Hafner
Cleveland Browns:
Stallworth's contract terminated
Balanced Ledger:
QB in Browns future: another mock draft
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KSU Notes – February 9
Cleveland Cavaliers:
NBA Power Rankings from Around the Internet
Buckeye Blogging:
Buckeyes grab 18 players on signing day
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Garfield at Buchtel basketball
All Da King's Men:
Palin At The Tea Party Convention
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Republican Pre-Conditions
Akron Law Café:
Citizens United v. F.E.C. (Part 4): Kennedy's and O'Connor's Basic Approaches to Constitutional Decisionmaking – Top Down and Bottom Up
Car Chase:
Collector Car Hobby Loses One of the Best—Jim Roll
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Decisions Decisions: Credit Cards or Your Mortgage?
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Loucile is looking for a Lake Erie getaway in June for three kids, ages 1, 3, and 5.
Sound Check:
Talk of the Town – Top entertainment picks for the weekend
HRLite House:
Track HR Research
Akron Gamer:
'Tecmo Bowl' recreation of Super Bowl XLIV
See Jane Style:
Do IT this week: Layering
Another trustees' report repeats familiar warnings. Will the feds have the stomach for to overhaul health care?
Published on Thursday, Mar 27, 2008
Medicare is in the more precarious situation of the two programs. The trustees project that spending by the trust fund that pays for hospital benefits, Medicare Part A, will start running deficits by 2010 and the reserves for the fund, which serves about 42 million beneficiaries, will cover benefits until 2019.
The projections for Medicare Part B, which pays for outpatient services and doctor visits, are not as alarming. That's not to say they are comforting, either. Unlike the hospital fund, Part B is not expected to become insolvent. It is supported primarily by beneficiaries' premium payments and general revenue funds that can be adjusted to cover expenses.
As health-care costs and the use of medical services rise, so grows the pressure to raise premiums and increase the general revenue funds devoted to Medicare services. The first wave of 76 million baby boomers are a mere three years shy of qualifying for Medicare. The reasonable assumption is the use of health services will rise with the aging population.
Further, medical inflation has risen more rapidly than general inflation over many years. Despite efforts (such as malpractice reform and measures against fraud and waste) to slow the rate of inflationary growth in the health care system as a whole, it's unlikely the upward trend soon will be reversed. Part B premiums have risen 64 percent in the past five years, a fair indication that rising costs in the future will be reflected in higher premiums and a bigger percentage of government revenues to health care.
If the annual recitation of the financial challenges facing Medicare says anything at all, it emphasizes that without an overhaul that would restrain spending and high inflation throughout the entire health-care system, proposed changes limited to the federal program for seniors would amount to little more than swatting at the elephant.
For example, one measure to hold down costs is to steadily cut back reimbursements to doctors. The downside? Medicare beneficiaries may find fewer doctors willing to accept them as patients. Like the millions of uninsured who depend on crisis care, they will receive the care they need somehow, using more expensive services that add to the squeeze on health-care budgets.
Get the full article here.
