U.S. Budget - OBBB | Medicare Part D premiums set to rise

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I have a tip on some Medicaid fraud. Go get 'em Mike and Russ

www.rickscott.senate.gov

U.S. Senator Rick Scott

www.rickscott.senate.gov www.rickscott.senate.gov

"Columbia later merged with another corporation to form Columbia/HCA, which eventually became the nation's largest for-profit health care company. Scott was pressured to resign as chief executive of Columbia/HCA in 1997. During his tenure as chief executive, the company defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs. The U.S. Department of Justice won 14 felony convictions against the company, which was fined $1.7 billion in what was at the time the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history" (from wiki)
 
Medicaid spending has also increased …

IMG_7152.jpeg

It was up to about $890 Billion in 2023, though the Federal government is only responsible for about 69% of total Medicaid spending (states cover the rest).
 
nycfan said:
Medicaid spending has also increased …

IMG_7152.jpeg

It was up to about $890 Billion in 2023, though the Federal government is only responsible for about 69% of total Medicaid spending (states cover the rest).
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This chart would make any reasonable person understand we have to have changes. This level of increase isn’t sustainable.
 
HintonJamesHeel said:
Interest is a big chunk for sure based on that but even half of the increase.
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yeah, that’s why I also referenced inflation (a significant bump in Social Security payments a statutory increases for inflation, for example). Mandatory spending (interest, social security, Medicare, Medicaid a few others) account for most of the spending and most of the increases.
 
HintonJamesHeel said:
This chart would make any reasonable person understand we have to have changes. This level of increase isn’t sustainable.
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Well, it is a matter of priorities as well. The increases need to be controlled but the tax cuts are starving the government of funds even as we keep spending and cost of debt has soared. We need to change both sides of the ledger, IMO. Instead the GOP is rushing headlong into adding another 3-4 Trillion to the debt.
 
nycfan said:
Well, it is a matter of priorities as well. The increases need to be controlled but the tax cuts are starving the government of funds even as we keep spending and cost of debt has soared. We need to change both sides of the ledger, IMO. Instead the GOP is rushing headlong into adding another 3-4 Trillion to the debt.
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We need a common sense party. Most Americans understand we have to cut expenses and raise taxes.
 
HintonJamesHeel said:
Most Americans understand we have to cut expenses and raise taxes.
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This right here is the message Democrats are so bad at communicating. They have tried to just be honest about it but most Americans don’t want to hear it. It makes me think the problem might not be Democratic messaging but a more a delusional electorate. So maybe most Americans don’t understand it.
 
HintonJamesHeel said:
We need a common sense party. Most Americans understand we have to cut expenses and raise taxes.
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Please provide evidence that most Americans support cutting spending…….not polls showing support for cutting “waste and fraud;” cuts in actual spending that substantially reduces spending in meaningful ways.
 
It's like all of those Trump voters who said that they supported cutting government "waste" or "fraud", but when their jobs got cut they suddenly were up in arms in all of these FAFO articles that have been posted saying "I never thought they would cut my job or close my federal office...I thought the cuts would be more thought out and better planned and would happen to somebody other than me." No doubt very large numbers of people are for cutting vague and undefined "waste and fraud", but once the impact of actual cuts become clear - especially if it impacts them personally or a family member - then suddenly it's not fun and games anymore.
 
HintonJamesHeel said:
This chart would make any reasonable person understand we have to have changes. This level of increase isn’t sustainable.
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You've been duped. That chart is complete bullshit.

1. Medicaid was completely altered in 2010, as it became a vehicle for Obamacare's attempt at universal coverage. The expanded coverage was not implemented until 2013 and not fully until 2015 or 2016. So anything about Medicaid before that point is irrelevant. You need to start at 2015, or 2013 at the earliest. And let's see, starting in 2015, the program grew a total of 14% over 4 years, which is pretty fucking sustainable. And note: that increase included states expanding their Medicaid program to take advantage of the federal subsidies -- several states, e.g., Missouri, opted into Obamacare in those years.

So, accounting for inflation and program growth, it was essentially flat for those years. Then, 2020 saw an increase in Medicaid spending. Hmm. Have any theories as to why? 2021? 2022?

2. What that chart is showing is:

A. Tens of millions of Americans got health insurance from Obamacare, and many of those did so through a program called Medicaid;
B. Medical expenses went up during Covid.

That's all. There's nothing at all unsustainable about it. In fact, IIRC the per capita Medicaid cost dropped as a result of Obamacare. So more people got better insurance at better prices. That's exactly what we predicted Obamacare to do; that's exactly what happened; and no idiotic framing on a chart can change that.

3. BTW health payments are supposed to go up in a recession. That's a feature, not a bug. When you look at the impact of social safety net programs, you'll see that their expenditures start to increase even in advance of a recession, and definitely through the recession. This is considered the #1 best anti-recession government program, as it delivers needed stimulus at exactly the time it's needed -- before the recession cuts too deep. We don't complain about the amount of unemployment being paid out during a recession -- well, we didn't used to, until the GOP got it in their heads -- because that's the entire point of it. And it keeps the downturn from getting worse, automatically.
 
HintonJamesHeel said:
We need a common sense party. Most Americans understand we have to cut expenses and raise taxes.
Click to expand...
How is that common sense party going to work? Whose common sense? Yours? Because your common sense is usually objectively wrong, as evidenced by that nonsense chart and the conclusion you drew from it.

Invariably, common sense is what a person resorts to when they have no argument and no basis for the opinion they are desperate to hold. I mean, some policies can be common sense and also supported by science, which is to say that the common sense is nice but not required to justify the program. When you don't have the science on your side, when you have "common sense," it means you're probably wrong.
 
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