Congress Is Nowhere Near Fixing Medicare

The pukefest is on today….
Congress is within reach of trashing the old and unworkable formula that Medicare uses to pay doctors. By itself, this is what it sounds like — a bureaucratic maneuver that matters little to anyone but the doctors who treat Medicare patients. The system that Congress replaces it with, however, could represent a big step forward in improving the quality, and lowering the cost, of everyone’s health care.
Uh, no.
At any rate, changing the way Medicare pays doctors is worth some deficit spending — especially if not changing the formula, and relying on more short-term fixes, is also likely to result in deficit spending. If a new payment formula can change the way doctors practice, the long-term savings and the improvement in public health may make it worthwhile.
Worthwhile? Utter nonsense.

This post was published at Market-Ticker on 2015-03-22.