Healthcare Daily Digest for 25 February: Will Republicans or the President Blink First Over Sequester, Healthcare Reform?

Here’s the plan offered by Republican Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana: delay implementing the Affordable Care Act (which Jindal and a host of other Republicans has never liked in the first place) and maybe, just maybe, things may work out for the best with the looming government sequester.

If it sounds a little like extortion, it’s probably all in your head. As Jindal explained on Meet the Press: “The president needs to step up to the plate and say to Congress, ‘Here’s how you can cut $85 billion.’ I’ve got an idea for him: Just delay the Medicaid expansions, delay the health care exchanges so they can work with states on waivers, on flexibility. You could save tens of billions of dollars there by– and you’re not even cutting a program that’s started yet. Just delay it for a few years.”

The looming $85 billion in across-the-board sequester cuts are real. President Obama has attempted to work with Republicans that would offset the automatic cuts with a deficit-reduction package of targeted spending cuts and new tax revenues.

Republicans say: No thank you! They want cuts, not increased taxes. They also characterize the administration’s position as a scare tactic. Or, in the words of Jindal: ““Stop sending out your cabinet secretaries to scare the American people. Roll up your sleeves and do the hard work of governing.”

Which… they’ve been trying to do. It’s you guys — “you guys” being the Republicans still achy from not winning most of their elections — who seem to be the petulant hitch in the giddy-up.

Will Obama take the idea of a delay to his Affordable Care Act seriously? My hope is: no. We can’t effectively change healthcare in this country by pushing off changing healthcare in this country. Maybe someone can help convince Jindal and his cohorts of that before Friday.

More Monday headlines:

Here’s Another Attempt at Avoiding the Sequester with a Healthcare Component: “$600 billion in cuts to heath-care spending have been proposed as part of a $2.4 trillion deficit reduction plan Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Alan Simpson released Tuesday. But heath-care experts doubt that target could be reached without changes to Medicare and Medicaid.”

Healthcare Budgeting in the Face of Uncertainty: “Whether the 87,000 parents who would lose Medicaid coverage under Gov. Scott Walker’s budget can afford private insurance in a government-subsidized exchange might be summed up by Jessica Jaglowski’s uncertainty. ‘We can afford to pay some kind of premium,’ said Jaglowski, a stay-at-home mother of three whose husband earns about $38,000 a year. ‘But if it turns out the deductibles and co-pays are high and things aren’t covered, that could be a big problem for us.’”

What About Medicare Drug Pricing?: “Congress is looking to save money but has avoided a route that its own budget office says could save $137.4 billion by 2022. It would mean defying an industry, however, that spends billions lobbying Congress and federal agencies.”

Medicare Scams Can Happen ANYWHERE!: “Over 150 FBI agents recently searched the Texas headquarters of The Scooter Store by force. The Scooter Store stands as America’s number one supplier of mobility vehicles, and the company is currently under investigation after possibly being involved in a Medicare fraud of nearly $100 million.”