“Medicare” on The Daily Caller

Thirty-six percent of doctors say they are no longer accepting new Medicaid patients due in large part to declining reimbursements, a new national survey has found. (more)

In a video interview with The Daily Caller, Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn said former President George W. Bush’s time in office was “a missed opportunity of tremendous proportions,” particularly due to the creation of a new unfunded entitlement program. (more)

The trustees for Social Security and Medicare have been reporting the imminent bankruptcy of Medicare, and to a lesser extent Social Security, for years with the dates of financial doom coming closer and closer. This year everything magically improved. The professional “senior groups” rushed to USA Today to declare: “There is no entitlement crisis.” (more)

This week the president’s re-election campaign officially dumped the campaign’s old motto, “It’s all Bush’s fault!” for a new one, “Forward.” It may not be the catchiest slogan, but given the dismal state of the country after three and a half years of his stewardship, what other options does Obama really have? (more)

In a high-profile essay in the Washington Post, think tank scholars Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein declared that the current morass in Washington can almost entirely be laid at the feet of the GOP. (more)

2033 is the year Social Security trustees predict that the Social Security trust fund will run dry. According to a study released on April 23, “Projected long-run program costs for both Medicare and Social Security are not sustainable under currently scheduled financing, and will require legislative modifications if disruptive consequences for beneficiaries and taxpayers are to be avoided.” (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Social Security is rushing even faster toward insolvency, driven by retiring baby boomers, a weak economy and politicians’ reluctance to take painful action to fix the huge retirement and disability program. (more)

Among the most hypocritical aspects of certain purist Democrats who call themselves liberals is their willingness to attack any Democrat who veers even slightly from liberal orthodoxy. (more)

Making money from Medicare is simpler than it may seem, according to an article by California Watch, an arm of the Center for Investigative Reporting. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mixing deep cuts to safety-net programs for the poor with politically risky cost curbs for Medicare, Republicans controlling the House unveiled an election-year budget blueprint Tuesday that paints clear campaign differences with President Barack Obama. (more)

Mitt Romney turned 65 this week, but, according to reports, he won’t be enrolling in Medicare. (more)

It’s an election year, so voters should prepare for endless speeches about the seemingly endless river of red ink flowing from Washington. While talk of reining in out-of-control spending is well past due, one cannot help but roll their eyes and hold on to their wallets when big-spending politicians talk about the budget. (more)

Health insurance companies “have no one to blame but themselves,” according to an investigation by iWatch News, which discussed the failing and out-of-date business models of large, investor-held insurance companies. (more)

The budget President Obama released this week demonstrates the administration’s detachment from our current fiscal situation. As a physician, I’m particularly concerned about the president’s refusal to offer a plan to reform Medicare so it will be here for future generations. The budget is a tremendous opportunity to create policy, yet the president’s budget of more spending, taxing, and debt won’t prevent Medicare from going bankrupt. If that happens, people will inevitably be denied access to care. And instead of increasing freedom and choice in the Medicare market, this budget focuses on increasing federal control — a tactic that continually fails. (more)

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Rick Santorum called Mitt Romney “too timid” on his plan to reform Social Security, and compared the former Massachusetts governor with President Obama’s positions on the issue. (more)

So much for “hope and change”; “Yes, we can”; and the grammatically questionable “change we can believe in.” After three years of Barack Obama, the verdict is in. The official slogan for the era of Obama should be: “Dude, where’s my welfare?” (more)

Newt Gingrich personally urged members of Congress to vote for a controversial Medicare expansion bill in 2003, two Republicans who were in the room said this week. (more)

Key features of payroll tax and jobless benefits bill passed Friday by the House and Senate: (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says congressional bargainers are preparing a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut and expiring jobless benefits as a fallback plan in case negotiations on a yearlong package don’t succeed. (more)

The main components of the House Republican plan to extend the Social Security payroll tax cut through 2012: (more)