The reviews are in ...
... of President Bush's proposed FY2006 budget, that is. For an interesting roundup of responses to his budget proposals from a wide variety of interest groups, check out Policy Newslinks, where you can read reaction ranging from the American Hospital Association ("Applauds Bush's commitment to adequate Medicare funding") and the American Library Association ("Applauds Bush proposal to increase funding for libraries") to the National Farmers Union ("Rejects president's agricultural budget cuts") and Taxpayers for Common Sense ("Administration introduces 'budget of the living dead'"). Check 'em out. On the same page, you'll also find links to non-budget-related news releases from a variety of trade associations and other interest groups. This site is updated daily and is one helpful way of keeping tabs on what issues are bubbling up in Washington.
Comments (2)
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OF COURSE, the American Hospital Association applauds President Bush's "commitment" to Medicare funding. Hospitals have been RAPING Medicare and Medicaid for years . . . two prime examples being the "disproportionate share" Medicaid fiasco in North Carolina and the HealthSouth accounting scandal in Alabama.
The federal cookie jar is not bottomless, but no one has explained it to some of these healthcare (hospital and HMO) CEO's (particularly of "not-for-profits") who pull down salaries and benefit packages worthy of the boys at Enron - and one has to ask, FOR WHAT? Do they produce products? Do they provide the medical service?
Doctors (and nurses and PA's) are supposed to keep taking all kinds of hits (from a malpractice system that the lawyers play like a lottery to reimbursements that don't cover overhead), while these people waltz all the way to the bank on the backs of the poorest and sickest. Doctors who do not jump on the corporate bandwagon, or who really want to "just make a living" by practicing good medicine and putting patients first can find themselves out in the cold pretty quick.
Posted on February 13, 2005 2:47 PM
Complicating this problem is the fact that the Health Care Financing Administration is one of the hardest agencies outside the Pentagon to get Freedom of Information Act requests filled.
Posted on February 14, 2005 11:08 AM