Health Care reform may have been defeated by the Drug Companies

Senators may have been paid off

Nobody on Capitol Hill takes kindly to a spreadsheet that lines up their campaign contributions with their floor votes. But that's what Maplight.org, a nonprofit database operation, has just done, producing a mashup with the tally from the Senate's vote Monday on drug importation and 6 1/2 years of campaign finance data. 

SENATOR	PARTY	PHARMA. $$	VOTE
Max Baucus, MT	Democrat	$261,020	NO
Richard Burr, NC	Republican	$301,898	NO
Orrin Hatch, UT	Republican	$262,950	NO
Joe Lieberman, CT	Independant	$199,540	NO
Mitch McConnell, KY	Republican	$225,900	YES
Arlen Specter, PA	Democrat	$353,550	YES

Studies show that Physicians are happy with Medicare

Physicians may not be enamored of Medicare, but they like it much better than private insurance plans

according to a survey by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA).
The association’s Payer Performance Study of more than 1,700 group practices showed that physician groups ranked Medicare Part B well ahead of six of the largest private insurance companies in terms of overall satisfaction, based on data released at the MGMA’s annual meeting.

The survey asked participants, all of whom were MGMA members, to rank seven of the largest payers--Medicare Part B, UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Coventry, and Anthem--on parameters including payer communications, provider credentialing, contract negotiation, payment processing, systems transparency, and overall satisfaction.

Medicare led the pack with a mean aggregate satisfaction score of 3.59 on a 6-point scale (1 = totally dissatisfied, 6 = completely satisfied). Aetna took second place with a score of 3.14.

The big loser? UnitedHealthcare, with a score of 2.45.

Obama Health Care plan turns into Medicare extension?!

Obama announces: Public option - dead, new plan - Medicare extension!

Wednesday December 9th,

President Barrack Obama's health care reform plan that originally involved a 'public option' that would have potentially covered all citizens of the U.S. went out the window.

Instead of the so called 'public option' Obama intends to change the eligible age of Medicare beneficiaries.

The U.S. Senate is now weighing the option of expanding the program to people aged 55 to 64. But many may not be eligible, and those who are probably won't get as great a bargain as seniors enjoy currently, after all - expanding the over fed hog that is government spending can't do anything but raise the cost to the taxpayers!

The idea of expanding Medicare has been a sleeper throughout this entire health care argument. It emerged Tuesday as part of a compromise plan to pacify liberals who wanted a government-run public option as part of reform. President Obama embraced the new plan Wednesday.