+joc Posted November 18, 2012 #201 Share Posted November 18, 2012 I think you're missing my point. It's not that Medicare's reimbursement payment system shouldn't have been overhauled in the '80s or that this approach was a bad one. On the contrary, letting the federal government dictate those prices was one of the smartest moves that administration made, precisely because it did lead to more efficient hospital management, at least for a time. No, my point is about your alarmism and demand for ideological purity. You cited Reagan, yet he's a perfect example of someone who let pragmatism win over ideology, instituting a successful system that would be denounced as communist if someone like Obama had been around to implement it at the time. What matters is what works, not what satisfies your litmus test. In the narrative you're putting together here, Reagan would be an unwitting pawn of the socialist Russian conspiracy that's infiltrating our society. But in the real world, he's the guy who was able to, ah, "Sovietize" Medicare reimbursements to help ensure that it persisted to the present day. In the REAL world, Reagan was a guy who was President with both the House and the Senate being Democrat controlled. In the REAL world, Reagan did nothing to Medicare, Congress did. Reagan signed it because it was a bipartisan agreement that had a lot of support on both sides. Let's face it...Medicare itself is a 'Soviet Style' mess and who brought that one into being? It sure as hell wasn't Ronald Reagan...so your comments are moot to the point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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