December 5, 2017

How the GOP tax scam could kill cancer patients

The Community Oncology Alliance is warning Congress that a new, increased sequester cut to Medicare payments will severely threaten community cancer providers and the nation’s cancer care delivery system. The Medicare sequester cut has already dealt a severe blow to community cancer care, and doubling and extending it will be catastrophic. This budget gimmick will further reduce access to cancer care for Medicare patients, particularly in rural communities, limit provider choice, and have the unintended consequence of actually increasing the federal deficit.

Daily Kos - If the Republican tax cuts bill becomes law, it will immediately trigger a $25 billion cut in Medicare. That's because of mandatory spending cuts that will kick in as a result the tax bill’s $1.5 trillion increase to the deficit. The last time this happened, that Medicare cuts were forced, wasn't that long ago. It was 2013. And as Sarah Kliff reminds us, what happened then was that cancer patients were turned away from clinics, because the clinics couldn't afford the expensive chemotherapy drugs they were administering without Medicare offsetting the costs.

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