Maryland Wants Private Payers To Subsidize Medicare, Medicaid

The government can't pay its bills, so skate them along to somebody else!

Maryland hospitals and regulators are discussing raising hospital prices for private insurers and businesses by hundreds of millions of dollars a year to make up for suggested cuts from Medicare and Medicaid.

A proposal by the Maryland Hospital Association circulated to policymakers in recent weeks details a plan to shift costs to private payers by raising the rates they pay hospitals by 7 percent over three years while giving sharp discounts to the Medicare program for seniors and the Medicaid program for the poor