My wife received a
mailing [pdf] today from the
Healthcare Education Project, a joint venture of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA). The four-page glossy mailer urges the reader to "write Congressman Kuhl today and urge him to vote against President Bush's proposed healthcare cuts". A list of cuts for 29th District hospitals is displayed prominently on the second page of the piece.
The attached postage-paid return card is addressed to the union, which is a round-about way to "tell Congressman Kuhl" anything. I assume the mailing was targeted at women, since my wife isn't a union member or healthcare activist.
Comments
This article from the Washington Post says the programs have not been cut, only the growth in spending has been slowed:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/10/AR200702...
"Bush, citing the need for fiscal responsibility, proposed reducing by $101 billion over five years the spending growth of the two health programs, which serve 93 million people and will cost the government $564 billion this year."
The increase in Medicare is 5.6%, down from an expected 6.5%. Medicaid will be about 7%.
According to this article, the real growth in medical spending for 2008 is expected to be 8%: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/63667.php
In addition, the rate of inflation is growing, so 8% is probably the low end of medical cost growth. Finally, we're entering a recession, so we'll probably see Medicaid enrollment increase as more people lose jobs.
So I'd say that it's a cut, because the nature of entitlements is that they need to match inflation and enrollment or they're shrinking.
How do we sustain a 8-10% growth in entitlements each year? Your normal working class does not get that type of increase, so increasing taxes isn't the answer.
Good question. Medicare is the elephant in the room and will be insolvent by 2018 if not sooner.
http://www.webmd.com/medicare/news/20060502/medicare-insolvency-creeps-c...