Hey, Doctors: Who Loves You? Hint: It's Not the GOP
President Obama's proposed fiscal 2012 budget and the changes in the current year's budget proposed by House Republicans show the very different priorities of the two parties when it comes to healthcare. While both sides aim to cut the federal deficit -- and though Obama, like the GOP lawmakers, would make deep cuts in domestic programs -- only the president seems intent on protecting healthcare from the ax.
For example, Obama's budget would spare doctors from Medicare pay cuts for two years -- not just until the end of this year, which is all that December's Congressional compromise gave them. To offset the cost of this largesse, the President would generate $62 billion in savings through changes that reduce certain Medicare and Medicaid payments to providers and expand the use of generic drugs in federal health programs. But the Republicans, who haven't addressed the "doc fix" yet, would eliminate incentives to doctors and hospitals for acquiring electronic health records.
Other healthcare-related cuts proposed by the GOP include:
- $1.3 billion from community health centers
- $1 billion from the NIH
- $850 million from the CDC
- $360 million from CMS
- $174 million from the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant
- $65 million from the Administration on Aging
- Possible cuts to loan forgiveness programs for physicians who work in underserved areas
- Reductions in Medicare primary care bonus payments.
It also seems shortsighted to cut the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant and other services to poor women and children not included in the above list. Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, especially protested the proposed elimination of Title X of the Public Health Service Act, which covers HIV testing, cancer screening, blood-pressure testing, post-partum counseling and contraceptive services for more than 5 million low-income women, two-thirds of them uninsured.
As for cutting loan forgiveness programs for physicians in underserved areas or taking back Medicare bonuses for primary care doctors, these ideas just go to show how clueless Republicans are about the real issues in healthcare.
Obama's budget, in contrast, provides nearly $80 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), slightly above this year's level. (Republicans, in contrast, want to cut the 2011 HHS budget by $9 billion.) It adds $3.5 billion for discretionary HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment activities. And it tacks on an additional $2.1 billion to the $2.2 billion being spent this year to expand community health centers.
Even the Huffington Post, which is critical of Obama's proposed cuts in social programs, notes that his budget does not slash Title X funding, which amounted to $317 million in FY 2011. The budget also includes hundreds of millions of dollars for various kinds of preventive care.
Perhaps Obama is more favorable to healthcare programs than he is to other government initiatives because the fight for the Affordable Care Act has consumed so much of his presidency. But, whatever the cause, this budget shows that he is a true friend of health care -- unlike the born-again budget-cutters in the GOP.
Image supplied courtesy of The Whizzer.
Related:
- State of The Union: Tell the Republicans They Lost and Get on With Healthcare Reform
- The GOP Can't Torpedo All of Healthcare Reform, But Here's the Precision Bombing Plan
- Memo to the Red States: Don't Play Poker With Obama on Healthcare Reform
- GOPers Consider How to Cut Medicare After Discarding Best Approaches