Bush proposes hiking Medicare drug premiums [View All]

[babylonsister]

Bush proposes hiking Medicare drug premiums
By Jeffrey Young
Posted: 02/15/08 04:10 PM


The Bush administration will submit a bill to Congress Friday outlining a plan to raise Medicare premiums for higher-income beneficiaries enrolled in the Medicare prescription drug benefit, a change that would reduce taxpayer spending on the program by $3.2 billion over five years.

The administration’s actions set in motion a series of events that could lead to a full-fledged debate about the future of Medicare this summer, just months before the presidential and congressional elections.

The Bush plan would reduce subsidies for single people with incomes greater than $82,000 and married couples with incomes greater than $164,000.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the likely GOP nominee for the presidency, has long supported limiting federal subsidies for Medicare drug coverage to low-income beneficiaries while the two Democratic White House contenders, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) have expressed support for expanding subsidies by lowering premiums to more people.

Democrats, already unhappy with Bush’s proposal to cut $183 billion in the Medicare budget over the next five years, gave the new proposal a cool reception.

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http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/bush-proposes-hiking-medicare-drug-premiums-2008-02-15.html