Short Term Losers: Medicare, NIH

Long Term: Med Schools, Research Facilities, FDA, Patient choice for Medicare

We know that the immediate losers are Medicare -2% and the NIH at -5%, but what does that mean in the big picture? The immediate effect of budget cuts will hurt Medicare and the NIH, and will start to feel that pain right away. But, what are some of the longer term effects?  For Medicare providers, like the Mayo Clinic here in Phoenix, fewer and fewer will opt to see Medicare patients, so the choices for the delivery of care will get smaller and smaller. Providers are resilient, and maybe a 2% loss in payment will be made up by a 4% increase in more members to a practice that stays with Medicare. The teaching institutions will see less funding for med schools and related programs, not to mention pure research. As the NIH gets less funding, so will the teaching institutions that depend upon government grant and subsidy. As for other government agencies in the health care continuum like the FDA, can the drug review and approval  process get much slower, more expensive and worse overall, yes, yes and yes.

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