Congress still does not get it.

The News Media today publish two stories about the inability of Congress to come to grips with changes needed to the health care system. First, Senator Baucom fails to understand that Medicare is rapidly going broke but he is trying tu repeal cuts in the Medicare payment system. He should be concentrating on the cause for Medicare's forthcoming insolvency, the excess of preventable chronic disease in a growing aging population with a payment system that focuses on the wrong interventions. Secondly, Congress is concerned about a "Dr. Shortage". For the most part this is a myth. The 'shortage'' is in primary care. The third party payment programs short change primary care and focus om specialty care. Thus, young doctors $100,000 or more of debt choose a spocialty that will reduce their debt most rapidly, As usual politicians focus on perception rather than reality.