What’s the point of extending insurance to more people if you are cutting the benefits of medicare recipients?  That just leaves the medicare patients in the same boat as those who previously didn’t have insurance….unable to afford needed medical care.

I’ve said all along that while I support the idea of health care reform, I would withhold judgment on the specific plan until I saw the plan.  I’m not sure I can support a plan that makes it harder for medicare beneficiaries to get home health care.

(Thanks for the link Sky.)

WASHINGTON — Snowflakes swirled around the Capitol on Saturday, whipped by wintry winds, but on the Senate floor inside, a heated debate raged as Democrats and Republicans traded jabs over legislation to achieve President Obama’s goal of near-universal health insurance coverage.

By a vote of 53 to 41, the Senate on Saturday rejected a Republican effort to block cutbacks in payments to home health agencies that provide nursing care and therapy to homebound Medicare beneficiaries.

Republicans voted against the cuts, saying they would hurt some of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens. Most Democrats supported the cutbacks, saying they would eliminate waste and inefficiency in home care.

The Democrats’ health care bill would reduce projected Medicare spending on home care by $43 billion, or 13 percent, over the next 10 years. The savings would help offset the cost of subsidizing coverage for the uninsured.

[SNIP]

“We are reducing overpayments,” Mr. Baucus said. “We are rooting out fraud. We are getting the waste out. The savings go back in Medicare and extend the solvency of the trust fund.”

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