Health care reform legislation could be worse for America’s seniors than the Administration and Congressional leaders are publicly stating, according to The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), one of the nation’s largest nonpartisan seniors advocacy organizations.

Consumers oppose the current Senate Healthcare legislation by a two-to-one margin. In a nationwide survey conducted by the American Consumer Institute Center for Citizen Research (ACI), 48% of Americans oppose the Senate bill, while 24% support it.

SNM is pleased that the U.S. Congress has passed a fix to freeze the conversion factor at the 2009 rate for physicians, which will ensure that millions of patients continue to receive medical coverage for critical diagnostic imaging tests and therapeutics. However, SNM cautions that a long-term solution is necessary to address this ongoing problem.

Medicare beneficiaries with heart disease who attended more cardiac rehabilitation sessions had fewer heart attacks and were less likely to die within four years than those who went to rehab less, researchers report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Today the Federal Government announced changes to the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) in a first step to simplify the schedule, remove red tape and to encourage preventative care. The changes will be introduced in May 2010.