Recommended: What Health Law Didn't Fix: Medicare Doctor Pay

I have mentioned in several previous posts that the Democrat's claim that the recently-passed health care bill would save money was based in large part on assuming that the 21% Medicare cut in doctor's pay would occur - even though Congress has been putting off this pay cut every year since 1997 and is likely to continue to do so, adding an estimated $276 billion to the health care bill's cost over the next decade (that brings the total estimated REAL cost of the new health care bill to about half a trillion dollars over the next decade.)

Of course, as Julie Rovner's NPR piece today What Health Law Didn't Fix: Medicare Doctor Pay points out, if they really cut Medicare payments to doctors by 21%, most doctors would simply stop taking Medicare patients, because they would lose money on each one. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that no business person can afford to keep selling a product they lose money on, and that includes doctors.

My neighbor, a doctor, tells me his group already loses money on each Medicare patient, even at today's rates, and even if he limits a Medicare patient's visit to only 15 minutes, which he feels is often far too short.

So no doubt Congress will again put off cutting doctor's Medicare payments,which is probably the right thing to do, but makes a mockery of Democratic claims that the health care bill will save us money.