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Hospitals push hike in age for Medicare

WASHINGTON - As the deficit reduction supercommittee hunts for $1.5 trillion in additional savings, US hospital executives are so worried about having their payments cut that they plan to start lobbying Congress next week to shift the burden onto their elderly patients - specifically by raising the age of eligibility for Medicare.

The American Hospital Association is rallying hundreds of hospital leaders to descend upon the Capitol on Tuesday and urge legislators to consider increasing the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 as one way to save money without reducing payments to hospitals. That move is so controversial that President Obama, who once expressed a willingness to entertain the change in Medicare age eligibility, omitted it from his deficit-reduction proposal last week.

“Providers have been giving and giving and giving, and will give more. But the beneficiaries also have to be touched even though politicians feel like that’s a third rail,’’ said Lynn Nicholas, president of the Massachusetts Hospital Association. “We have to look at health care entitlements and not just payments. It’s pretty much a no brainer to raise the age of eligibility for future enrollees.’’

In addition to the eligibility age increase, which is projected to save the federal government $124.8 billion over 10 years, Nicholas said the state association would like Congress to consider other cost-sharing options within Medicare. Raising the elderly’s Medicare premiums for doctors’ visits from 25 percent to 35 percent, for example, would result in a savings of $241.2 billion over a decade, she said.

One proposal Nicholas said the hospital association endorses would gradually increase the age of eligibility by two months every year starting with people born in 1949, until it reaches 67.

The nation’s hospitals face a potential 2 percent cut as part of a larger automatic Medicare reduction if the bipartisan supercommittee does not come up with enough savings over the next two months. Given that, it comes as little surprise that hospital executives would be trying to protect their bottom lines, health care analysts say.

First Edition: September 30, 2011 | Medicare Resource Center

Now on the Kaiser Health News’ blog, Andrew Villegas mines the blogosphere to sample the chatter related to the Justice Department’s decision to seek a quick Supreme Court resolution of challenges to the health law. He writes: “The Justice Department Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to hear their appeal of the 11th Circuit’s August ruling that found the individual mandate unconstitutional. The moves increase the likelihood that the Supreme Court will take the case up in its next term, potentially ruling on the constitutionality of health law before the 2012 elections. Here’s how some bloggers handled the Obama administration decision and what they think it means for the law and for the politics of the 2012 elections.” Check out what else is on the blog .

The New York Times : Some Common Ground For Legal Adversaries On Health Care The 2010 health care overhaul law has provoked an unprecedented clash between the federal government and 26 states, dividing them on fundamental questions about the very structure of the federal system. But the two sides share a surprising amount of common ground, too, starting with their agreement in briefs, filed on Wednesday, that the Supreme Court should resolve the clash in its current term (Liptak, 9/29).

Politico : Republicans Target Health, Education For Cuts House Republicans on Thursday released their draft 2012 budget for labor, health and education programs, a giant $153.4 billion measure that moves toward the Democrats in total dollars but still challenges President Barack Obama almost across the board on labor rules and his prized education and healthcare reforms (Rogers, 9/29).

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