Culture and Politics Today with Laura Echevarria  

Today's show was smoother this week. I did receive an e-mail from tech support at BTR about last week's difficulty in getting the BTR switchboard to function. They fixed the problem and were apologetic about the technical problems I had last week that made it so difficult to do the show well.

Today, we look at the Baucus bill and the impact it would have especially on senior citizens and the treatments they would receive if doctor's are penalized for being in the top 10% of doctors' per capita costs. In other words if, at the end of the year, a doctor's Medicare patients are healthy but their treatments cost the Medicare system more than 90 percent of other doctors' Medicare treatments, their doctor would be penalized 5 percent of his Medicare reimbursements at the end of the year. Ouch! Medicare reimbursements are already low so a doctor who is penalized will likely owe just as if he owed on his taxes.

Next up is the children in Burlington Township, NJ who were taught a song praising Barack Obama during last February's Black History Month. The video wasn't posted until this summer.

You'll find the video on my website at www.lauraechevarria.com

Be sure to join me next week!