A major change is coming to Medicare

Skilled nursing care and physical therapy should be covered under your heath insuance, but it isn't jsut because the insuance companies don't want that responsibility.

Skilled nursing is heathcare, cover it.....

The government already covers Long Term Care. State Medicaid begins after the personsl assets are used up because the government can't afford $3500 per month on the low side per beneficiary until the that person has used up their own funds. And the State programs are funded or subsidized by the Federal Government. Doing the math at 10,000 known denied claims means an additional 35 million dollars per month from the tax coffers, and that's before opening the flood gates for the mass population. Medicare just can't afford that, and the tax payers can't support it.

I would rather waste the money here then of overseas. As long as one US citizen need help the rest of the world can go to hell. If we can't afford to help ourselves we can't afford to help anyone else including being the world’s police force.

I have worked and paid into SS for nearly 50 years and I'm still working a fulltime job because I love working, being needed, being respected for my input into the workplace and the check isn't bad either.  For anyone to lump me into some "bracket" like the 47%, the 60% of takers per Paul Ryan just makess my blood boil.

Although I'm not wealthy and will never be able to have millions in the Caymans or in Swiss Bank Accounts to hide thereby avoiding paying taxes in the coutry that made me rich, I find the reasoning by any American that this is "okay" to do repulsive and totally unacceptable.  This is the country where we are born raise families, send our sons and daughters to fight in wars, and our jobs that we need to survuve have been sent to China, India and other foreign nations at our expense and this man running for president is a key player in  the market responsible for doing just that.  Yet, there are those that think  this too is "okay." Why?  Do you feel  that its okay for your neighbor's job to be sent to China as long as it's not YOUR job?  Because rest assured, one day very soon, it could be YOUR JOB that's sent there.

When you vote, you are NOT voting one ONE ISSUE, you are voting on a myriad of issues and the person who will best address them all for you, your family and your livelihood.  If you vote like that, then there is absolutely no way that anyone could vote for Romney. You don't even have to like the president to know of the two, he is the best person for  the job.

Stock market is up, jobs are up, war is out, no new wars, we will no longer have to pay for other people's illnesses, children and adults with pre-existing conditions can be insured, women can get equal pay for equal work, abortions is NOT a choice for the masses to make for any one woman, it is her personal choice and she will have the right to make that choice.  I do not personally believe in abortion but I know that it IS NOT my right  to decide what others are to do with their bodies since I'm not God and saving their souls is their responsibility, not mine or yours and the samething goes for same sex marriages.  Not your business.  Get some business so you can tend to  that instead of trying to tend to that which doesn't concern you.

Forward 2012!!

Where has the author of this piece been?  If she isn't knowlegeable about Medicare policies, why is she chosen to present an article on this policy, which has been in place for years, and is, like most Medicare policy, a complex issue.  There are clearly rationale, and humane benefits from this change in policy. Maitenance of function and prevention of further decline are desirable objectives, but because of the "self-pilot" nature of much of Medicare's payment methods, this change will lead to much abuse. People who view therapy as a paid-for exercise club or social event will try to take advantage of the new policy.  Medicare will have to design policies that require evidence the therapy helps achieve these desirable objectives, just as it now requires that evidence of improvement is present.  This will not be easy, as EVERYONE in my age group (78) is declining in one way or another. By the way, my wife is an amputee in a wheel chair (routine knee replacement gone bad) who has had lots of therapy in the past two years.  This new policy will surely raise Medicare costs further, just when how to reduce those costs is central to the political debate.  I am a retired health policy analyst, if you couldn't tell.