For those who missed the news last week, Senate Republican conservatives blocked halting a decrease for Medicare payments to physicians.  Progress Report has all the details.  Here are some highlights:

"On Thursday, Senate conservatives blocked a bill that would have averted a 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors. The bill, which would have canceled a reduction in Medicare fees and increased doctor pay by 1.1 percent, passed the House last week 355-59. But the Senate failed to invoke cloture on the bill by only one vote. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was the only senator to miss the vote, besides Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), who is undergoing treatment for a brain tumor. The bill had proposed offsetting the increased doctor pay by reducing payments to Medicare Advantage's private fee-for-service insurers, a provision opposed by the White House."

Of course, hypocritical Bush and his Republican rubber stampers in Congress protected their private health insurance corporate cronies so they could continue tons of money courtesy of the government through Medicare Advantage; a real euphemism.

Meanwhile McCain, whose health care has been covered by the government his entire life, is maintaining his terrible record as the worst senator in this Congress.

"The recalcitrant position of the conservatives and the White House creates real victims. As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said, Senate conservatives "are playing a dangerous game of chicken. The only losers will be Medicare patients, old people." "A lot of physicians will limit the number of Medicare patients they will see" as a result of the pay cut, said Dr. Lee Schoeffler, a Tulsa, OK ophthalmologist."

Same old cow pies from the Bush regime: let regular Americans suffer, this time seniors.

"Physicians groups aim to remind voters of the fact that the blame for the pay cut lies squarely at the feet of conservatives this fall. The American Medical Association is planning a television and radio campaign ad targeting conservative senators who voted against the legislation.

",,,the Texas Medical Association withdrew its endorsement of Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) for reelection, citing his vote against the Medicare payment bill. "The Texas Medical Association Political Action Committee (TEXPAC) is outraged that you made the decision to follow the direction of the Bush Administration and voted to protect health insurance companies at the expense of America's seniors, those with disabilities, and military families," wrote El Paso physician Manuel Acosta, chairman of the medical association's board, in a letter to Cornyn.

"The White House was adamant in its opposition to the bill, citing concerns that it cut privatized Medicare Advantage (MA) funding, in effect prioritizing a minority of MA patients at the expense of the more than 80 percent of seniors who are enrolled in traditional Medicare programs. Senate conservatives used the White House veto threat as a shield for their own votes."

When will regular people in the US learn?  Republican conservatives care only for themselves and their corporate cronies, in this case, private health care insurance companies which, under a then Republican controlled Congress, gave the sun, moon and stars to them through Medicare Advantage and screwed traditional Medicare. 

During the Obama presidency, traditional Medicare should be strengthened, offered to every American who wants it, and the private health care insurance companies should compete in the so called "free market" for customers which these hypocritical Bush health care corporations, who make their gazillions in profits by feeding at the government trough, and super hypocrite Bush and company keep touting.

Health care is a right, not a profit making commodity.