US States Slash Medicaid

Almost 30 percent of federally funded health care facilities can't afford adequate high-speed Internet service. That means they can't take advantage of the technology needed to do a remote consultation with a doctor or even transmit an X-ray file.

But on Thursday the Federal Communications Commission proposed fixes for that shortfall. They center on investing more in the nation's 12,000 rural health care centers.

"What we do at the Commission every day is important," commented FCC Chair Julius Genachowski at today's Open Commission meeting. "Typically it's not a matter of life or death. This is."

These proposed measures would expand on the agency's Rural Health Care Support Mechanism, one of four funded by the FCC's Universal Service Fund. At present, the program offers telecommunications and Internet access support to about 3,000 providers nationwide, and caps its services at $400 million allocated a year.

A presidential commission’s leaders proposed a $3.8 trillion deficit-cutting plan that would cut Social Security and Medicare, reduce income-tax rates and eliminate tax breaks including the mortgage-interest deduction.

The co-chairmen of the panel appointed by President Barack Obama suggested reducing Social Security spending by raising the retirement age to 68 in about 2050 and 69 in about 2075. The plan also would slow the rate at which benefits grow. The savings would come between 2012 and 2020.

Discretionary spending cuts in the plan include reducing congressional and White House budgets by 15 percent, freezing federal salaries and cutting the federal workforce by 10 percent. The discretionary reductions of $1.4 trillion would be split equally between defense and domestic programs, Bowles said.

The savings would come between 2012 and 2020.

He cites the requirement to buy insurance. The ruling is the most sweeping blow yet to President Obama's signature domestic achievement.