Medicare quality will drop

During the State of the Union address, the president said, regarding Medicare:

“We’ll bring down costs by changing the way our government pays for Medicare, because our medical bills shouldn’t be based on the number of tests ordered or days spent in the hospital – they should be based on the quality of care that our seniors receive … our government shouldn’t make promises we cannot keep – but we must keep the promises we’ve already made.”

Let’s see, the cost of a luxury suite at a hotel is higher than the cost of a standard room. Makes sense. To lower the cost of a room, you lower the quality of the room.

So, as the president said, “We’ll bring down costs … based on the quality of care that our seniors receive.” I therefore conclude, to lower the cost of a room/Medicare, you lower the quality of the room/Medicare. Makes sense, as we heard directly from the president, lower the quality of care to cut the costs of Medicare.

I’m sure I’ll be accused of parsing words here. You decide, did the president really mean what he said?

Paul Zimmerman

Spokane