This is what happens when Medicare is brought to the table in any kind of budget negotiation: Sen. Joe Lieberman has to stick his finger in it, and this time he's
joined by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK). It is predictably punitive for Medicare beneficiaries, including raising the eligibility age and means testing.
Lieberman and Coburn's proposal includes several politically risky benefit changes, such as making seniors pay more for their prescription drugs. It also would raise the eligibility age for Medicare.
"The sooner you take the strong medicine, the sooner you will get healthy again," Lieberman said.
He said he hopes the proposal will create a "bipartisan beachhead" on Medicare after years of acrimony and rotating partisan attacks.... "This has some pretty progressive parts to it," Lieberman said, "I mean, we're asking wealthy Americans to pay more."
Which, as in the case of means testing Social Security, isn't really progressive, it's essentially turning a program which benefits every older American into welfare. It would also probably increase the administrative burden on the program with the layering on of more income verification requirements.
The eligibility age under their proposal would increase from 65 to 67 in 2014. They assume that the Affordable Care Act will be implemented, and that the seniors in the gap hoping to get Medicare will end up going to the private insurance exchanges. What they apparently don't factor in is the cost of subsidies required for this cohort of often less healthy people. It would gradually increase premiums in both Part D and Part B for all enrollees.
The proposal is going over like a lead balloon among other Democrats, apparently. Dem Leader Nancy Pelosi released a statement calling the proposal "unacceptable."
"It is unfair to ask seniors to get less in benefits and wait longer to get onto Medicare—all while Republicans back tax breaks for Big Oil and corporations that ship American jobs overseas.
"Just like the Republican plan to end Medicare, this proposal is unacceptable, especially for struggling middle-class Americans."
And on the Senate side, "Durbin strongly criticized Lieberman-Coburn plan to raise Medicare premiums, retirement age," Roll Call's Steven Dennis tweets, and Majority Leader Harry Reid says it's a "bad idea," according to TMP's Brian Beutler. Hopefully the combined reaction of these powerful congressional Dems will tarnish some of the "bipartisan" luster the plan might have for Biden's budget negotiators.