The Democratic bean counters are no longer simply offering theories in our universities’ classrooms. Today’s left-wing bean counters are in full force in the White House and the U.S. Senate (though not the House, thanks to Republican gains in 2010), and the “beans” they are counting are not at all theoretical. They are real human beings in need: America’s elderly hospital patients.

From Investor’s Business Daily:

On Oct. 1, the Obama administration started awarding bonus points to hospitals that spend the least on elderly patients. It will result in fewer knee replacements, hip replacements, angioplasty, bypass surgery and cataract operations.

These are the five procedures that have transformed aging for older Americans. They used to languish in wheelchairs and nursing homes due to arthritis, cataracts and heart disease. Now they lead active lives.

But the Obama administration is undoing that progress. By cutting $716 billion from future Medicare funding over the next decade and rewarding the hospitals that spend the least on seniors, the Obama health law will make these procedures hard to get and less safe.