Cuts await Medicare insurers

As the Obama administration tries to pull together a $634 billion down payment on achieving universal health coverage, it has made clear that it wants the health-insurance industry to foot a large part of the bill. President Barack Obama is expected to propose in his budget blueprint a mix of tax increases and healthcare spending cuts to fund a healthcare agenda. By far the biggest portion of proposed cuts, $177 billion over 10 years, would come from changing the way private-sector Medicare plans are paid by the government, according to a senior administration official.