Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Obama Pisses off the American College of Surgeons

It seems that Obama can't go any length of time without putting his foot directly into his mouth. Yesterday he compared ObamaCare to the Post Office and now this gaff.

Yesterday during a town hall meeting, President Obama got his facts completely wrong. He stated that a surgeon gets paid $50,000 for a leg amputation when, in fact, Medicare pays a surgeon between $740 and $1,140 for a leg amputation. This payment also includes the evaluation of the patient on the day of the operation plus patient follow-up care that is provided for 90 days after the operation. Private insurers pay some variation of the Medicare reimbursement for this service.

No wonder he doesn't know much about costs when he thinks a leg amputation costs 50x more then it actually does. Also why can't someone add the prices of things to the reform debate. I mean you can get a rough estimate of just about any service in the US except for health care. Most of the time people have no idea how much certain procedures cost since they only pay a fraction of the cost.

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