Jan 25 2012
News outlets report on some of the specific health policy positions being advanced by the GOP presidential primary field.
CQ HealthBeat: CBPP: Romney Budget Plan Entails Deep Medicare Cuts
Proposals by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney to limit federal spending to 20 percent of the gross domestic product, set defense spending at 4 percent of GDP, and cut taxes would require cutting Medicare and Social Security by 17 percent each in 2016 and 24 percent in 2021, the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said Monday (1/23).
The Associated Press: Santorum Says Obama Pushes Doctors From Medicare
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Monday warned Florida's seniors that the Democrats' health law would limit their access to doctors and dollars and criticized his main rivals for backing its requirement that younger Americans buy health insurance. Santorum tried to draw a connection between Medicare and a key provision of the health care law, the so-called individual mandate, which doesn't affect older Americans because virtually all of them are already covered through the government program (Elliott, 1/23).
The Fiscal Times: Why Gingrich's Budget Plan Doesn't Add Up
[T]here would be a substantial drop in the federal tax liability that would push up the deficit or force draconian cuts in domestic and entitlement spending. ... Romney's proposals to cap total spending, boost defense spending, cut taxes, and balance the budget would require extraordinarily large cuts in nondefense programs ... These cuts are far deeper than those required under the austere Ryan House budget plan (Pianin, 1/23).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
|
Medicare Advantage skews hospital readmission penalties