Year after year, the solution to "save" Medicare has been to cut the reembursements to care providers. As a result, many doctors won't take any new Medicare patients. Those that do take Medicare patients often have to cut corners to make ends meet. Most people have no idea how many people it takes to run a medical practice or how much it costs. Combine low reembursements with rising malpractice premiums and you can see why things are pretty grim in the socialized medicine areana.

My wife is the Nurse Manager for an out-patient pain surgery clinic. One of their doctors recently decided to accept some Medicare patients. To keep from losing money on each patient, he is looking to use a single medical assistant instead of an RN and the other necessary personnel normally used with these procedures. He's having to cut other corners whereever possible. It scares her to be associated with this guy even if she isn't directly involved in his Medicare procedures.