On Medicare, I would suggest ridding the system of fraud and bulk purchasing of prescription drugs, to begin with.
We need to save and strengthen and fix Medicare. Seniors realize Medicare is broken.
I'm telling you, as a doctor who spent about half of his time in the office taking care of our seniors on Medicare, it is a program that intentions to work are much better than the way it's working today in terms of practicality.
In terms of Medicare, I'm in favor of sitting down and having a serious discussion about the likely impact of the Affordable Care Act, health-care reform, on the cost issue and changing the fee-for-service structure.
There's a need to reform Medicare, but not a need to cut a half trillion dollars out of Medicare.
While I support initiatives to improve quality and efficiency in Medicare, I do not believe that these efficiencies should come at the cost of patient well being.
What I am saying is, all health care has a problem with costs. Medicare is growing slower than the private insurance plans. Why? Because of their efficiency. They don't have to give money to shareholders. Why should be defending shareholders?
Do we need Medicare reform? Yes we do.
We have to end Medicare as we know it. We have to fix it.
