Wednesday's theme. Obama's cuts $22 billion from Medicare. Remember when he accused the evil Romney of cutting $500 million out of Medicare. Seniors do not count, under ObamaCare. Here is proof.

<<<<  Now we know that Obama's healthcare bill is so in debt to itself,  that it cannot afford to treat seniors fairly.  Heck,  they are going to die,  anyway,  right?  

According to the AMAC:   

On January 1, 2014, ObamaCare cut nearly $22 billion from Medicare home health care over four years. That means an estimated 3.5 million poor and ill homebound senior citizens woke up on New Year's Day to discover that ObamaCare had slashed funding for their home health care program. 

Last year, Medicare home health services were delivered to approximately 3.5 million Medicare beneficiaries. According to the federal government's own data, these seniors are older, poorer and sicker than the Medicare beneficiary population as whole. Many of these seniors also reside in rural communities, where home health care is especially important because other sources of treatment are often located many miles away. Obama's cuts $22 billion from Medicare.  Remember when he accused the evil Romney of cutting $500 million out of Medicare.  Seniors do not count,  under ObamaCare.  Here is proof.  

But wait, there's more: according to the Obama Administration's own statistics, "approximately 40 percent" of all providers of home health services face net losses as a result of this Medicare cut. Put more plainly, 4-in-10 of all the providers on whom homebound seniors depend face the threat of bankruptcy and closure as a result of ObamaCare. That's 5,000 home health care companies and 500,000 jobs wiped out in order to pay for ObamaCare. 

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Related articles: 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/12/budget-deal-from-hell-no-to-alright/

Attention Seniors – Obamacare Forcing 14 % Cut to Medicare’s Home Health Care

http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/12/obamacares-homecare-cuts-to-hit-sick-and-old-new-years-day/

Another 500,000 policies will be cancelled, replaced with policies that comply with ObamaCare's "one size fits all" model.

We see this type of news item almost on a daily  basis.  The Obama Administration defends itself against this and the lie it told the American people ("if you like your insurance,  you can keep it,  period  . . .  no matter what") by arguing that (a) the "losers" will still have insurance,  but the policies will have been rewritten and the premiums will have been increased (often double or triple) in addition to raising deductibles (1500 to 5000 dollars) and (b) these "losers" need to know that the dirty old insurance companies broke Obama's promise,  not Mr Honesty.  Never mind the undebatable facts that all pre-existing polices will be re-written to include all elements of the ObamaCare "one size fits all" insurance model, that most pre-existing policies will see increases,  and --  wait! there is more ! -- that Medicaid/Medicare monthly payments will be increased (as well).  

No one is talking about this last bit of news (the increases in Medicare payments - no it is not "free" and no,  you never stop paying for it) but my wife and I just received notice that my Medicare payments will increase by 2.5% in the single year of 2014;  her payments will increase by 5% in the same 12 month period.  If this rate of increase continues,  my Medicare payments will be almost 8% higher than they are,  presently, my wife's 15% higher  -  all just in time for the 2016 elections.  

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500,000 Californians Lose Health Policies

By Wesley J. Smith

October 25, 2013 8:16 PM

Out of the National Review we have this account:  My wife, the syndicated San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra J. Saunders, has learned that at least 500,000 Californians may lose their health insurance next year — and that’s a conservative estimate. From her Token Conservative blog:

According to this link as of December 2012, there were 491,977 covered lives in individual health care plans regulated by the state Department Insurance that are not grandfathered under the Affordable Care Act. (If they bought a plan after March 2010, their coverage is not grandfathered.) . . . . . . . . .

Those canceled policies will have to be replaced with Obamacare-approved insurance:

California Association of Health Plans president Pat Johnston told me that by law providers must cancel non-grandfathered individual policies. . . . . . . . .    it may well be that ”if you’re outside that subsidy range, you’re on your own.”

So much for, “If you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance.” The train wreck continues.

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300,000 to Lose Health Coverage in Fla., 160,000 in Calif.  The California cancellations are in addition to those referenced above.  

Obama says he is only cutting payments to health care providers, not benefits to seniors. Can we cut payments to providers without cutting benefits? I don't think so.

Updated to include a listing of the actual cuts to Medicare.  

Here is the verbiage for claiming Romney is lying about the Obama cuts to Medicare: 

Mitt Romney’s campaign was brazenly misleading in its charge that the president’s health plan would cut medical services to older adults by reducing Medicare spending by $716 billion. The president’s savings will come mostly from smaller payments to managed care companies, which provide the same services as Medicare at a higher cost, and from slower growth in reimbursement rates to health care providers . . . .  NY Times

Question:  if you are an Obama believer,  rebut or answer this  --  how are these cuts,  and they are cuts,  to healthcare providers,  hospitals,  hospice care centers,  “rest homes” for our seniors,  and special in-home nursing care, affected without services being cut?  While Obama responds with,  “These institutions and providers will just have to work more efficiently,” the truth is that  real-world beneficiaries will simply receive less in terms of needed services and benefits.  Understand that providers and institutions receiving Medicare patients are already underpaid to the tune of 30%. 

From a post I wrote a week ago,  here are some pertinent facts about Obama's cuts.  As you read,  understand that none of these cuts are possible without effecting benefits and all Medicare cuts effect the elderly,  the poor and the indigent.

A  new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report updated the amount of money Obamacare robs out of Medicare from $500 billion to a whopping $716 billion between 2013 and 2022.   According to the CBO, the payment cuts in Medicare include:

• A $260 billion payment cut for hospital services affecting the aged and disabled, exclusively.
• A $39 billion payment cut for skilled nursing services effecting  private care facilities, nurses in mental health facilities,  and in-home care for the elderly and needy. 
• A $17 billion payment cut for hospice services  --  the poor who are near death are the ones affected by this cut (part of Palin's 'death panels'). 
• A $66 billion payment cut for home health services. Again,  it is the poor and needy most affected by this deduct. 
• A $33 billion payment cut for all other services.
• A $156 billion cut in payment rates in Medicare Advantage (MA); $156 billion is before considering interactions with other provisions. The House Ways and Means Committee was able to include interactions with other provisions, estimating the cuts to MA to be even higher, coming in at $308 billion.

Understand that Obama and the Dems added a "stealth" 216 billion dollars to the admitted $500 billion they spoke of during 2009.  

Conclusion:   Obama's health care reform cuts services to dying seniors in the hospice program,  cuts home health care services for seniors and the those handicapped.   Services demanding skilled nurses have been cut and hospital services for the indigent and immigrant population have been sorely cut.