$9 Billion in Medicare Savings Finances Budget Deal

In Con­gress, there’s much mer­ri­ment after Demo­crats and Re­pub­lic­ans found a way through their dif­fer­ences to pre­vent a gov­ern­ment shut­down, stave off an­oth­er debt-ceil­ing show­down, and cre­ate some long-term sta­bil­ity in the fed­er­al budget.

But while Con­gress breathes a sigh of re­lief over its budget deal, hos­pit­als are fum­ing, furi­ous that law­makers chose to fin­ance part of the bar­gain with a $9 bil­lion Medi­care change.