Healthcare Daily Digest for 12 February 2013: Medicare Eligibility Age Staying at 65

Raising the age for Medicare is officially off the White House’s table. “Press Secretary Jay Carney suggested President Obama is willing to consider cuts to the entitlement program to reduce the deficit but said ‘no’ to the White House increasing the minimum age.”

A variety of entitlement reforms have made their way across newspaper headlines and television screens. The age-raiseing plan for Medicare had been popular with most Republicans; raising the age from 65 to 67 would require younger retirees to buy their own insurance for those two years.

The age-raise proposal seems to come with some unforseen consequences. For instance: would seniors be able to pay for their own health insurance for that two year gap? If they couldn’t, how are they getting their healthcare? In effect, isn’t that simply shifting the financial burden onto someone else’s budget?

Because it’s fair-and-balanced Fox News, they throw in this soundbite at the end: “Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said in a tweet: ‘I’m personally shocked that the White House is ruling out things it previously supported.’” Buck then had to take a call from the kettle, telling him that Buck was, in fact, black.

Here are some Tuesday Headlines:

• Blowing Whistles for Fun and Profit: “A Tampa pathologist who blew the whistle on Medicare fraud will get $4 million for his trouble, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday.”

• Dear Kathleen and Marilyn: We Need More Time: Here’s a letter from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) to Secretary Sebelius and Acting Administrator Tavenner, laying out the case for sticking to the 1 October 2014 date for ICD-10 implementation.

• Our Plan is Working!: “The Obama administration said on Monday that its efforts to combat fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid healthcare programs were paying off as the government recovered a record $4.2 billion in fiscal 2012 from individuals and companies trying to cheat the system.”

• The Previous Headline, Put Another Way: Health Care Fraud Investigations Pulling In $8 For Every Dollar Spent.

• …Or, How an Orderly Can Now Be a Doctor: “Facing a doctor shortage in California, state lawmakers want to fill the gap by redefining who can provide healthcare in the Golden State.”

• Oklahoma Looking for Any Legal Reason to Drop the Affordable Care Act: “We’re looking for speed bumps and legal remedies to stay within the boundaries of what law abiding citizens would expect us to do,” Republican Lewis Moore said.