Medicare Crisis

     Tell Congress to address Medicare funding now, is a commentary written by Dr. Peter Carmel and Dr. Bruce Malone in the Austin American Statesman.  Dr. Carmel is the president of the American Medical Association and Dr. Malone is the president of the Texas Medical Association.  The goal of the American Medical Association is to unit physicians nationwide and to promote the betterment of public health.  The goal of the Texas Medical Association is much like the American Medical Association just on a state level (i.e. Texas).
     In this commentary both Doctors seek to Address Medicare the Funding crisis.  Dr. Carmel and Dr. Malone believe that the Congress's procrastination on addressing a long term solution to the medicare problem has cost the country more than $300 billion.  They believe that if the procrastination continues in five years the cost will reach at least $600 billion.  Congress has developed what Dr. Carmel and Dr. Malone call the "faulty formula", in which Congress plans to cut medicare payments to doctors by 27%.  While it doesn't state the crisis it would bring on a national level, they do state that when this cut takes place on March 1st, that it will affect 2.9 million seniors in Texas and about 900,000 veterans and their families in Texas.  
     Dr. Carmel and Dr. Malone's solution for the crisis is rather simple.  They would like for Congress to use the projected savings from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to eliminate the "faulty formula" that the Congress has set into place.  What the Doctors do not produce is the monetary amount the savings from the wars is estimated.  Thus, their is no way to draw a conclusion on whether or not the projected solution would actually work, or if their would be enough savings to cover the Medicare expenses.