News In Healthcare

Pres­i­dent Bush and Con­gress have been put on legal notice that Medicare must be fixed.  The trustees over­see­ing the health care pro­gram for the elderly said for the sec­ond straight year that the gen­eral tax­payer rev­enue would have to bear more than 45% of the program’s cost.  A report in The Chicago Tri­bune explains that Bush is now required to present a plan to Con­gress so the 45% limit isn’t breached in the future.  As things stand now, the trustees project that Medicare will become insol­vent by 2019.

Prob­a­bly Not.  Accord­ing to Health and Human Ser­vices Sec­re­tary Mike Leav­itt, not enough ben­e­fi­cia­ries are tak­ing advan­tage of Medicare’s pre­ven­ta­tive ser­vices: free flu and pneu­mo­nia shots, a phys­i­cal exam upon enter­ing Medicare, and screen­ings for osteo­poro­sis, dia­betes, and cer­tain can­cers.  Sec­re­tary Leav­itt is kick­ing off a cam­paign today to increase the use of these ser­vices.  The focus of the first week will be on Maine, Mass­a­chu­setts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.