Bush Budget Proposal Would Trim Medicare and Medicaid

clipped from blogs.wsj.com Medicare spending needs to be reigned in, the Bush administration makes clear in its budget proposal for fiscal year 2009. The $3 trillion proposed federal budget cuts Medicare and Medicaid funds by $14.2 billion, reports the Washington Post. The plan would shave $560 billion from Medicare and Medicaid over the next decade but leaves alone subsidies to insurers totaling an estimated $150 billion, notes the WSJ. The Bush administration estimates the changes will result in a $10 trillion decrease in spending over the next 75 years. The budget doesn’t specify many details (click here to see the full budget proposal), but, as expected, does call for payment cuts to doctors and hospitals that surpass particular funding levels. It’s not clear whether insurers would also be affected by such cuts. The proposed budget trumpets some broad themes, such as wanting to “encourage greater individual responsibility for health care choices and costs,” with few details about how they will be accomplished