Medicare

By Scot Kersgaard
The Colorado Independent

A report issued Tuesday by healthcare advocacy group Families USA illustrates how the Ryan budget, passed recently in the U.S. House on a mostly partisan vote, could cost Colorado up to $36 billion over the next decade.

According to the report, Colorado would bleed billions in Medicaid, Medicare and other federal healthcare spending over the next ten years if the budget were adopted.

Two years ago today, President Obama signed legislation that created the Affordable Care Act. In recognition of the anniversary, here are some facts about heath reform, courtesy of Families USA.

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act:

Reductions in General Fund Expenditures

Senate Bill 12-85

Testimony to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee

Robert Semro, policy analyst

February 9, 2012

My name is Robert Semro, and I am a policy analyst with the Bell Policy Center. The Bell is a non-partisan, non-profit research and policy organization dedicated to expanding opportunity for all Coloradans.

Prescription drugs are a big part of the monthly budget for many seniors on Medicare, and provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are working to lower those costs.

By Bob Semro

Health care costs are the key to our country's fiscal future. Unfortunately, most of the discussion these days is about cutting federal health care spending and not about reducing the cost of health care. If you think that cutting spending is the bottom line, you should ask whose bottom line they're talking about.

By Bob Semro
For MedicalVoyce

Provider reimbursement rates have been or may be affected by a number of federal policies, laws and proposals.

Broadly speaking, the policy areas break down this way:

By Bob Semro

Medicare Advantage is alive and ... doing very well. Opponents of the Affordable Care Act raised fears among senior citizens by saying that the new law would gut the popular program, but the latest information about the program tells a far different story.

(This column appeared in Steamboat Today on Aug. 17, 2011)

By Bob Semro

Steamboat Springs – July 30, 1965, was a milestone date in American history. On that day 46 years ago, the Social Security Act of 1965 was signed into law. That legislation introduced two new programs, Medicare and Medicaid. We take them for granted now, without realizing how much they have achieved and how much we rely on them.

July 30, 1965, was a milestone date in American history. On that day, the Social Security Act of 1965 was signed into law. That legislation, implemented a year later (45 years ago), introduced two new programs, Medicare and Medicaid. We take them for granted now, often without realizing how much they have achieved and how much we rely on them.