Congressman Peter Welch is urging Vermont seniors to sign up for
Medicare benefits under the new health care law, through which the Obama administration
says Vermonters have saved $10.6 million.
We’ll look at causes for the recent rise in gas and heating oil prices and how some are dealing with it; also we hear about causes for the possible loss of funding at the Vermont Veterans Home in Bennington.
One of the top priorities of the Green Mountain Care Board
is to reduce the number of times patients have to return to the hospital for a serious
illnesses.
Congressman Peter Welch
has launched a bi-partisan effort to reduce Medicare costs by
nearly $160 billion over the next 10 years. The plan would allow the federal government to negotiate prices
for prescription drugs that are bought under the Medicare Part D program.
Five New England
residents and five national health care advocacy groups are suing the federal
government, saying Medicare benefits are being improperly cut after their health
conditions are determined to be chronic.
Congress
is taking steps to avoid major cuts in Medicare payments to health care
providers. The
Vermont Medical Society says that’s good news because the cuts would have been
devastating to doctors across the state and would have most likely forced some
private practice physicians out of business.
The
Douglas Administration has changed its mind about asking senior citizens
to
send their upcoming Medicare rebate checks to the state. The Governor now says getting
the checks back would be an administrative nightmare, and so he’s
decided to
back down from the issue.