A wise society cares for its elderly and vulnerable citizens. Whatever its challenges, Medicare represents that compassionate ideal in action. But in their quest for budget savings, some in Washington have again proposed cutting Medicare payments to doctors, mammogram providers, and other critical healthcare services. This ignores public opinion, endangers public health, and damages our national character.
Politicians peddling these cuts claim noble policy aims controlling costs and helping patients. We shouldn't believe these arguments. This ploy simply shifts healthcare expenses onto the backs of sick seniors while enriching insurance companies. We must reject this false choice between compassion and fiscal responsibility. Protecting Medicare requires proper stewardship, not thoughtless cuts that sacrifice quality care.
Slashing reimbursement rates ignores overwhelming public wisdom. A recent national survey conducted by the Radiology Business Management Association's Radiology Patient Action Network and the Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance revealed that 76% of Americans oppose reducing payments for Medicare services.
People understand this reckless move jeopardizes access to care. They strongly reject technocratic schemes that undermine a program relied upon by millions of vulnerable seniors. In a democracy, such powerful opposition should give pause to political officials.
Some disingenuously portray the cuts as merely reducing provider profits. False. Most physicians and medical clinics operate on thin margins and rely substantially on Medicare payments to continue seeing seniors. For many rural healthcare providers and geriatric specialists, dramatically reduced reimbursements could force heartbreaking service reductions or even practice closures. These cuts don't just hit profits and bottom lines—they degrade and deny vital medical care.
Preventive screening is essential for both public health outcomes and cost savings. Yet these short-sighted cuts perversely target services like mammography, cancer scans, annual wellness visits, and other diagnostics that catch disease early and reduce later expenses from serious illnesses. How counterproductive to pinch pennies on early detection and prevention only to spend far more taxpayer funds down the road on late-stage diseases.
In fact, the survey showed that nearly 90% believe cancer survivors should not pay more for their annual mammograms. Additionally, 73% want more government investment in lifesaving diagnostic services like imaging.
Of course, Medicare requires thoughtful reform to control costs as enrollment grows. But arbitrary cuts to providers are not responsible reform. Tweaking the minutiae of reimbursement formulas fails to address core drivers of high healthcare spending like chronic illnesses, outdated payment incentives, defensive medicine practices, and lack of care coordination. Real reform means innovating in care delivery models and focusing on patient health outcomes, not merely manipulating payment formulas to extract budget savings year to year.
Medicare's wise founders understood this. They carefully devised the program to provide senior citizens with "the best of modern medicine" regardless of ability to pay. Indiscriminately cutting clinical reimbursement rates betrays that noble founding vision. It also worsens the disparities in care access and outcomes that the pandemic tragically aggravated over the past three years.
Millions of Americans were forced to delay important health screenings and preventive care due to COVID-19, raising risks as we all work to move beyond the pandemic. Now is precisely the wrong time to essentially abandon vulnerable patient populations through short-sighted Medicare cuts to essential care providers.
A decent society cares for and protects its most vulnerable citizens—including low-income seniors who worked or served our country for decades. As the heartbreaking impact of the coronavirus vividly revealed, we already neglect at-risk elderly populations far too often. Recklessly slashing Medicare reimbursements to providers would only deepen this systemic injustice. Keeping Medicare's promise should mean responsibly ensuring quality care access for all seniors, not building bureaucratic budget spreadsheets on the backs of our most vulnerable neighbors.
As with strong national defense or environmental protection, preserving Medicare demands judicious public investment and stewardship. The American people understand this moral necessity. The question is whether our elected officials and policy leaders still do.
With Medicare's future now uncertain, we together face a fundamental choice. Will we honor the program's compassionate ideals that have improved countless lives? Or will short-sighted technocrats render it a hollow bureaucratic shell of rationing and bean-counting? Medicare can certainly be both sustainable and humane—but not if we recklessly gut provider payments.
There is some hope on the horizon through congressional action. For example, House physician leaders have introduced the Provider Reimbursement Stability Act, which would limit future cuts and provide a much-needed lift to the Medicare budget neutrality threshold. Additionally, a new proposal from the Senate Finance Committee will soon be considered that would mitigate a portion of the proposed cuts for 2024. However, both pieces of legislation face difficult prospects advancing through a fractured Congress, and it’s up to providers to make their voices heard and shine a light on impacts to patients.
Proposed slashes may offer illusory short-term savings on paper. But they will degrade medical care, violate public wisdom, and ultimately damage our shared values and character as a society. Medicare's founders sought healthcare coverage for a vulnerable senior population often ignored by the market—a reform that vastly improved life for millions. Today's leaders would do well to remember that policy decency, compassion and care for one another still matter most of all.
Kit Crancer, president, and Bob Still, executive director
Radiology Business Management Association