The New York Times has an amazing story that impacts seniors, the reason why Medicare produces fewer benefits than it should.

The concept is very simple: Until July 1st, tomorrow, Medicare has not been allowed to seek competitive bids for medical equipment and drugs. The result is what any normal, sentient being would expect: Gross overcharges.

For example, a walker for which Medicare pays $110 is sold by Wal-Mart for $59.92, according to the paper.

The excess profits collected by equipment and drug makers means there are fewer dollars available in the system for additional services, care, equipment and pharmaceuticals. In effect, the public is being screwed twice — once by paying inflated prices and then again by not having other services available which could be financed with a market-based bidding system.

The Times, in High Medicare Costs, Courtesy of Congress (June 25, 2008), also explains that the open bidding system which starts tomorrow is already under attack and may be repealed!

As the Times reports:

“Now, would you like to guess how the equipment makers feel about this?

“Right.

“With the changeover looming, they have increased their contributions to Congress. They have also started publicly claiming that competitive bidding will, among other things, deprive some patients of oxygen equipment they need.

“The industry seems to be having some success, too. On Tuesday, the House overwhelmingly passed a sprawling Medicare bill that would throw out the initial bidding results. Pete Stark and John Dingell, two Democratic committee chairmen, and John Boehner, the House Republican leader, all pushed for the provision. The Senate will soon take up a similar bill.”

Do your part. Contact your representative or senator.

The full story from the Times can be found at: High Medicare Costs, Courtesy of Congress

This entry was posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 5:11 am and is filed under Reverse Mortgage . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.