Question: My mother, aged 83, recently spent 10 days in the hospital and another three weeks in a nursing home due to complications from an extremely severe attack of shingles. While Medicare paid for the vast majority of her medical bills, I am worried about the future given President Bush’s latest proposal to cut billions from Medicare over the next ten years – while not reducing the hundreds of billions being spent in Iraq and elsewhere. If overall Medicare payments are slashed and gasoline and other expenses keep rising, where will our seniors get the money to pay for their care? Certainly not from “savings” generated by the new Medicare drug benefit that has increased the cost of my mother’s prescriptions. And what about those of us who have been paying our Medicare premiums for years are ready to retire?

Answer: Ignoring the ongoing health needs of current seniors and the substantial increases in the number of seniors expected during the next 20 years, the Bush Administration has proposed a Fiscal Year 2007 budget that would reduce Medicare spending by $36 billion over five years (2007-2011) and by $105 billion over 10 years. These reductions are in addition to the deep cuts that were signed into law on February 8, 2006 that gutted Medicaid by only a few votes.

It is hard to believe that the President and his Congressional supporters continue to target important health programs for those folks who don’t have lobbyists despite the fact that some 14 million Americans aged 65 and older report some level of disability, mostly linked to a high prevalence of chronic conditions. The proposed cuts include significant funding reductions for preventative health care, cancer research, rural health programs, substance abuse and mental health treatment, and Indian health facility construction.

But it’s not just seniors who will be harmed by these cuts: More than 80 million Americans depend on local hospitals and health systems for Medicare and Medicaid services, but 32 percent of the nation’s hospitals currently have negative total margins, and seven of ten say they are losing money on Medicare.

And it gets worse. A new survey released by the American Medical Association (AMA) predicts that “drastic cuts in Medicare payments to physicians will harm seniors’ access to care.” In fact, 45 percent of the doctors surveyed say that Medicare cuts next year would force them to either decrease or stop seeing new Medicare patients.

According to the AMA, the proposed 2007 Medicare payment cuts of about five percent is “just the tip of the iceberg,” with nine years of cuts totaling 34 percent now projected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. And, while Medicare reimbursements plummet, the costs of operating medical practices are expected to increase by at least 22 percent.

AMA President J. Edward Hill, M.D., predicts this is just the beginning. “The cuts come as the first wave of baby boomers begin to enter Medicare in five years,” he says. “By the time the full force of the cuts take effect in 2015, 67 percent of physicians say they will be forced to decrease or stop taking new Medicare patients.”

The domino effect of the kind of short-sighted thinking demonstrated by our politicians will only get worse as the over-65 population doubles by 2030. This is the year when, according to the National Institute on Aging, nearly one of five Americans – some 72 million people – will be 65 years of age or older. The age group “85 and older” is now the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population.

Taking the Next Step: It doesn’t take an actuary to understand what these cuts will do to today’s – and tomorrow’s – seniors. Only the politicians and the wealthy will be able to afford, and get, good health care.

All politicians understand negative calls, letters, and e-mails from their constituents. So call, write, and e-mail the President, your senators, and your congressmen in Washington, D.C., and suggest that they scrap the cushy health plans they wrote into law for themselves and join the rest of us. And, when you vote this November, find candidates who will stand up for seniors and the disabled -- because the crowd up there now sure hasn’t.