First, it is not Medicare that is the problem. It is the people running the program--the Government! Also, if they would cut "medicaid/welfare" programs where the real fraud and waste exists, there would be no Medicare shortfalls. Why is it always the good hard working class who has to pay for the liberal, sit on their butts, and wait for handouts population? When is this Country going to wake up and see the real problems? I am a senior, I worked all my life, paid my taxes, and now I AM THE CAUSE OF MEDICARE SHORTFALLS. BULL!!! Hopefully there will be some "real changes" coming in Nov. 2010 and a reversal of the Dems/Liberal/Obama so called health care reform! What a crock!!!

I agree it's not the Medicare program it is the people that are running it. In SC to become a Medicare provider you have to obtain a Certificate of Need from DHEC which is absolutely impossible. It's clear that DHEC which also governs medicaid has limited medical providers to become Medicare approved this is suppose to keep health cost down. Why is this important? The agencies that are approved are charging excessive fees which drives the cost of Medicare up. New competitors try to come in with a cheaper rate. However, DHEC will not issue a certificate of need to new medical companies. For example, home health agency charges anywhere from $60 - $120 per hour, I believe that fee to be excessive and Medicare pays this, why is there not a cap placed on an hourly rate that is reasonable. In 2008 over 1.7 million home health visits were completed. x $60 per hr= $102,000,000. Well if it was $40 per hr which is more than fair the cost would be $68,000,000. This is a 34 million dollar savings.

Bunny, you grade A american conservatives are not the only ones who hold down jobs. Not everyone on welfare is a democrat and being a democrat does not mean you are on welfare, so please get off your elitist I can do no wrong because fox news tells me so pedestal. Also, please don't bash those who try to reform rather than taking the ostrich approach of sticking your head in the ground and hoping something happens. Debbie is on the right track as to what's wrong w/ the system. Providers are being paid more than they should so they're taking advantage of it and there is way to much fraud in the system. Both of these points were addressed in the reform bill by boosting funding for fraud and prevention and by bidding out contracts to work medicare contracts which are reviewable every 3 to 5 years. People are trying rather than taking the "it will fix itself" approach. Also, please don't forget that our wonderful, free nation was created by a bunch of liberals who were tired of a conservative Church of England running everyone's lives. God bless and please keep an open mind, you'll be amazed what you can learn.

Medicare cannot be saved. Period. We cannot afford it and no amount of special pleading by leftists like mgj can ever change that. The money for prescription meds, health care for every American legal or not, Medicare, on and on and on. It is not there. We are going down. Our future is Detroit MI. No doubt about it. Oh, by the way fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund and and and and and and and

It should be noted that the physician services and ancillaries under Part B are under the Medicare fee schedule, a cost-control system that private industry uses as its base in negotiations, that was recently cut (to be renegotiated with a temporary extension [this is the Docfix issues]) 21.3%. This sector can be saved with a few small changes in reimbursement and ongoing, somewhat enlightened administration. The Part A hospital side is a separate, complex business that suffers from the allowance of for-profit health care entitities and a perverse incentive to build more, whether demand really needs or not. My focus has been part D (Regulated Royalties). The brand-generic landscape from teh 1984 Hatch-Waxman Act does not serve the medical common. The perverse price differences on various clinical options not only divert direct resources to the over-priced, they empower the pharmacy-benefit harassment and marketing over-drive that cost us even more. Fix Part B, control hospital infrastructure, overturn Hatch-Waxman. These are the only ways I see to save Medicare