–When inmates run the asylum and porters steer the ship. This time, it’s Medicare.

Mitchell’s laws: The more budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes. Until the 99% understand the need for deficits, the 1% will rule. To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments. Austerity = poverty and leads to civil disorder. Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
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This tiny article was buried on the lower half of page 9 in today’s Chicago Tribune:

Washington–A congressional agency Friday recommended makng traditional Medicare beneficiaries pay more money upfront for medical services.

A report by the non-partisan Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recommended a new 20% charge for the 90% of Medicare beneficiaries who buy supplemental insurance to cooovere medical cosgts that Medicarfe part A and Part B do not cover.

Now see if you can understand this. It affects all of you who unnecessarily pay Medicare taxes (the government doesn’t need or use your money), and who, because Medicare doesn’t pay enough to doctors, are forced to pay for supplementary insurance.

You will be punished for having to pay for your supplementary insurance, by having your benefits reduced 20%. Got it? You pay once (unnecessary taxes). Then you pay again (unnecessary supplementary insurance). And then you pay a third time (that unnecessary 20% benefit cut.)

You say you never heard of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission? Here’s a press release from the Government Accounting Office.

WASHINGTON, DC (May 24, 2012) – Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), today announced the appointment of five new members and the reappointment of one existing member to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC).

Here is a list of the geniuses who made the recommendation to steal more money from your pocket — unnecessarily. See if you can point out the common denominator among them:

–Alice Coombs, MD, Critical Care Specialist and Anesthesiologist, South Shore Hospital, Weymouth, MA;
–Jack Hoadley, Ph.D., Research Professor, Health Policy Institute, Georgetown University, Washington, DC;
–David Nerenz, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Health Policy and Health Services Research, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI;
–Rita Redberg, MD, Professor, Clinical Medicine, University of California at San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco, CA;
–Craig Samitt, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dean Health System, Inc., Madison, WI. Their terms will expire in April 2015.
–Glenn M. Hackbarth, JD (Chair)
–Peter W. Butler, MHSA, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Rush University Medical Center;
Michael Chernew, PhD, (Vice Chair) Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School;
–Willis D. Gradison, Jr., MBA, a Scholar in Residence in the Health Sector Management Program at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business;
–William J. Hall, MD, Director of the Center for Healthy Aging at the University of Rochester School of Medicine;
–George N. Miller, Jr., MHSA, Chief Executive Officer, Okmulgee Memorial Hospital, Okmulgee, OK.
–Scott Armstrong, President and Chief Executive Officer of Group Health Cooperative;
–Katherine Baicker, PhD, Professor of Health Economics in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health;
–Thomas M. Dean, MD, practicing physician, Horizon Health Care;
–Herb B. Kuhn, President and CEO, Missouri Hospital Association;
–Mary Naylor, PhD, RN, Marian S.Ware Professor in Gerontology and Director of the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing;
–Cori Uccello, FSA, Senior Health Fellow of the American Academy of Actuaries.

See the similarity? Medicare fees are a question of economics. But here we have sixteen commissioners and not one is an economist! They understand medicine, but none understands the realities of today’s economy.

They all believe our Monetarily Sovereign government is running short of the dollars it has the unlimited ability to create. So, they have decided to take more dollars from your pocket (because obviously you are not running short of dollars).

Congress established MedPAC in 1997 to analyze access to care, cost and quality of care, and other key issues affecting Medicare. MedPAC advises Congress on payments to health plans participating in the Medicare Advantage program and providers in Medicare’s traditional fee-for-service programs.

In short, they are a bunch of medical folks, who wouldn’t know a Monetarily Sovereign government, if they were in it. Oops, they are, but they don’t.

They know medicine, but have no clue about federal financing — so naturally, the Comptroller General thinks they are perfect for the job.

Note: This bit of expensive ignorance brought to you by the same folks who decided to tax your Social Security benefits after taxing you with FICA.

And who does all this hurt the most? Surprise! It’s the lower 99% income group; the upper 1% couldn’t care less. They don’t need Medicare. Their corporations pay for their insurance.

And the beat goes on.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

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No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption + Net exports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY