From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Will medical care for the elderly and the poor be a broken promise?

Hello again, I'm Arminolni, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues, Americans care about most.

A California doctor gets $24 to spend a half hour with a Medicaid patient

less than it costs to keep the lights on in his office.

His plumber gets 10 times as much to fix a plugged drain in 45 minutes.

Medicaid and Medicare are in trouble.

Everybody's known it for years, but the principal

fix for rising medical costs has been cutting fees for doctors and other providers. On to the point,

more and more doctors are refusing those patients. The next president will be required by law to do

something about it. Are the candidates coming up with solutions? Also today, Iraq's

escalating violence, first the news. Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa

Monica and from the Public Radio International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford

Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Hello again,

Womanalini, back with To the Point. The federal government promises health care for the elderly and the

poor, but Medicare and Medicaid are steaming toward a fiscal train wreck. On To the Point,

the law requires the next president to resolve a problem that's been building for years. Retiring

baby boomers will make it a lot worse.

What are the candidates proposing to do? First, this news update. Iraq's Prime Minister,

Nuri al-Maliki, has issued a deadline for Shiite militias in Basra. Lay down your weapons in 72

hours or face the most severe penalties. Layla Fidel is Baghdad Bureau Chief for the McClatchie

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