Medicaid

Cuts in payments to doctors and hospitals will only worsen the underfunding of our medical infrastructure and increase disincentives for doctors to care for Medicare and Medicaid patients. What's really needed is reform: Our country's current health care system wastes hundreds of billions of dollars in administrative and advertising expenses, and in efforts to shift or deny payment. Medicare's administrative costs are up to four times less than those of the private insurance companies subsidized by Medicare Advantage. Congress should resist the Bush administration's cost-cutting proposals and instead set the stage for real reform of our health care system.