Remember the Medicare debacle that plagued seniors the first of the year? Well Bush is still wanting to mess with Medicare, and this time his target is the actual doctors and hospitals:

The Bush administration says it plans sweeping changes in Medicare payments to hospitals that could cut payments by 20 percent to 30 percent for many complex treatments and new technologies.

The changes, the biggest since the current payment system was adopted in 1983, are meant to improve the accuracy of payment rates. But doctors, hospitals and patient groups say the effects could be devastating.

Federal officials said that biases and distortions in the current system had created financial incentives for hospitals to treat certain patients, on whom they could make money, and to avoid others, who were less profitable.

Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, said the new system would be more accurate because payments would be based on hospital costs, rather than on charges, and would be adjusted to reflect the severity of a patient’s illness. A hospital now receives the same amount for a patient with a particular condition, like pneumonia, regardless of whether the illness is mild or severe

While the plan may sound great, in the end the people who really pay will be the patients. Current Medicare covers 80% of medical bills, so a typical one day stay in a hospital with no extra tests generally cost a patient between $200-$300. This will result in higher charges to the patients and most greater chances of patients being released from hospitals pre-maturely.

The bright side to this is the fact that this gives Democrats more ammo to stage a take over of Congress this fall. This will effect the largest percentage of actual voters who turnout in mid-term elections – seniors. Democrats need to seize this opportunity and expose it, as well as remind seniors it was the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress who caused the nightmares that plagues Medicare first of the year.