A new report from
Families USA which will be officially released at 10 AM today, paints a truly bleak picture of what the Bush regime hypocritically labeled the
(MMA)Medicare Modernization Act of 2003.
This is abject bullshit. What happened in 2003 should be called, The Medicare PRIVATIZATION Act of 2003.
The Bush crowd thinks they can dupe us into believing their crap by putting happy faces on their cruel deceit. Think: Clean Skies Initiative, Leave No Child Behind, Healthy Forests, Mission Accomplished, Family Values, Compassionate Conservative, bullshit, heaped on bullshit.
In fact, the
MMA is nothing but taxpayer subsidized, corporate welfare--a giveaway to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) was touted as making fundamental
changes in how the Medicare program works--and indeed, it did. Proponents argued that
moving toward privatization of Medicare would save billions of taxpayer dollars while providing
better health care for the 43 million seniors and people with disabilities who rely on
Medicare. But now, nearly three years after passage of the MMA, the move to privatize
Medicare has resulted in windfalls for the drug and insurance industries and huge costs to
both taxpayers and beneficiaries.
http://www.familiesusa.org/...
As we know, when you have all three branches of government controlled by people who are both incompetent and hate government, you end up with catastrophes like, Iraq, Katrina and the rape and pillage of Medicare, which is one of our greatest societal achievements.
More from the Families USA report.
Who wins? The winners are the special interests--the drug and insurance industries--that
are enriching themselves at taxpayer expense. This waste of Medicare dollars is particularly
troubling at a time when experts such as Medicare's trustees are raising concerns regarding the
long-term fiscal health of the program. The billions wasted on subsidizing these special
interests could have been invested in the Medicare program to hold down costs and enhance
benefits. Instead, they will go into the coffers of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
This bleak assessment, my dear friends, is coming on the heels of more bad news for Medicare recipients. The Republicans want nothing less than the destruction of Medicare--and to accomplish this, they will begin means testing. The greatness of Medicare is that it is not a means tested program.
Congress established the surcharge under a little-noticed provision of the 2003 law that added a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. Federal officials said the surcharge, to be phased in over the next three years, represented a major change. Until now, high-income and middle-income beneficiaries have generally paid the same premium. Medicare officials said the surcharge would raise $7.7 billion in the first five years and a total of $20.8 billion in the first 10 years.
Dr. McClellan said the surcharge would have "a very positive impact, making Medicare more sustainable in the long term." Some Medicare experts say the higher premiums will prompt some wealthy people to drop out of Medicare, leaving the program to serve poorer, sicker people. Dr. McClellan dismissed those concerns, saying Medicare would still be a bargain for high-income people.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Medicare was not intended to be welfare for our elderly. It is a program to provide universal coverage for all our senior citizens regardless of their income level. When you means test an entitlement, you imprint it with a stigma, this is precisely what Medicare is not.
This is from an interview Dr. Mark McClellan gave a few days ago to the Christian Science Monitor:
There is substantial waste in the healthcare system that can be eliminated, McClellan said. "Because of medical errors, misuse of treatments, overuse and underuse, by many estimates up to 30 percent or more of our healthcare spending is going for the wrong thing. We need to be making much more progress on getting that right."
. . .But McClellan said he favored "reduced subsidy levels" from Medicare "for wealthier Americans."
"I do think we need to continue to take a close look at what Medicare can support for the long term. In 2007 we are implementing an income-related premium in Medicare.
http://www.csmonitor.com/...
In fact, premiums will be much higher, the Bush regime misled, er, lied to seniors.
Medicare leaders misled seniors last month when they said premiums for Medicare drug plans would remain about the same in 2007, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said Thursday.
Waxman says his staff's analysis shows an average 13.2% increase for next year. But Medicare officials Thursday stuck to their estimate that rates will remain about the same -- so long as beneficiaries are willing, in some cases, to drop traditional Medicare and sign up for an alternative, such as an HMO.
http://www.usatoday.com/...
Do you see what is going on? Take a shit privatized plan and your premiums will remain relatively stable. Opt for traditional Medicare and get a huge increase.
Of course Republicans don't want seniors to remain in the tradional fee-for-service Medicare program, which by the way, is what my mother has, instead they want them to sign up for one of their privatized plans known as Medicare Advantage (another bullshit name).
Why are Republicans pushing Medicare Advantage like the snake oil salesmen they are? Because that's how they get the money flowing to all their corporate benefactors (big pharma and insurance industries). This is known as corporate welfare, and the taxpayers are subsidizing the privatization and destruction of Medicare.
More appalling news from the Families USA report.
Not satisfied with the growth of enrollment
in private plans despite steady overpayments,
Congress again sought to expand
these private plans as part of the 2003
Medicare Modernization Act. It changed
Medicare+Choice to Medicare Advantage
and modified the payment formula again,
ensuring additional payments to private
plans.
2004-2005: A new, temporary payment
formula resulted in an additional boost in
payments to Medicare Advantage plans.
MedPAC found that these payments
reached 107 percent of per capita costs for
traditional Medicare.6
2006 and beyond: Yet another new payment
system will produce overpayments
estimated by MedPAC to be 111 percent of
per capita costs for traditional Medicare.7
See the box on page 4 for an explanation
of the current payment system and why it
results in such large overpayments.
The Republicans will make it economically very painful for seniors to remain in traditional Medicare. Always remember the name of the game is to privatize Medicare and transfer money to the insurance and pharmauceutical industries. The Republicans don't give a shit about your mother's health--not for a nanosecond.
But several independent experts said it is true that seniors using the most popular type of Medicare prescription coverage -- a stand-alone drug plan -- will face significant premium increases next year unless they switch to more economical plans that often come with more restrictions. The prescription drug benefit is overseen by the government but delivered by private insurance companies that offer a variety of plans with differing features and premiums.
"If you look at the plans where most seniors are now enrolled, many are increasing premiums," said Tricia Neuman of the Kaiser Family Foundation, who oversees Medicare policy for the nonpartisan research group.
http://www.latimes.com/...
We better take this country back on November 7th, the stakes are enormous.