Republican Medicare Plan Faces Challenges

[cthrumatrix]

Republican Medicare Plan Faces Challenges

By Amy Goldstein and Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, November 17, 2003; Page A01


Republican leaders on Capitol Hill began to detail an agreement that would transform the government's compact with the 40 million Americans on Medicare, as they embarked yesterday with the White House on a campaign to sell their plan to a public and Congress that are divided on the issue.

President Bush immediately pronounced himself an ally of the plan, which would add prescription drug coverage to the health insurance program and try to motivate older patients to join private health plans. But the difficult work of pushing the legislation through Congress, with just a week remaining before the body adjourns, also quickly became evident.

Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), the Senate's most influential Democrat on health issues, said the measure would not pass that chamber. In the House, it was less clear how much opposition persists among the conservatives who have been expressing doubts for weeks, although one of them said he believed most conservatives would be disappointed by the agreement.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49730-2003Nov16.html

[cthrumatrix]

1. here is why it will face challenges.....

But the six-page outline released yesterday made clear that the drug benefits would be only a fraction of a plan that would alter the health benefits Medicare provided, the amount people would have to pay for them and -- if the plan worked -- where older Americans received their care. The legislation also would give an unprecedented increase in payments -- totaling at least $25 billion -- to doctors and hospitals in rural areas. It also would eliminate planned reductions in payments to physicians nationwide, giving them more money instead.

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Specifically, Medicare would abandon its tradition of providing everyone in the program the same benefits for the same price. People with incomes of more than $80,000 would be charged higher premiums for the part of the program that covers doctor visits and other outpatient services. And regardless of income, the yearly deductible that patients pay for that outpatient care, fixed at $100 for years, would increase annually starting in 2005.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49730-2003Nov16.html

[cthrumatrix]

2. details....another story

New Medicare Drug Benefit Is Complicated by Limits

By Eric Pianin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 17, 2003; Page A06


For the first time, seniors would be eligible for a drug benefit that would cover a portion of their annual prescription costs under a Medicare reform package unveiled yesterday by House and Senate Republican leaders.

The new Medicare drug benefit, scheduled to begin in 2006, would pay 75 percent of seniors' drug costs up to $2,200 a year, with a $275 deductible for prescription drugs and a monthly premium that would average $35.

The program would pay nothing more until the beneficiary had spent a total of $3,600 out of pocket. Then the beneficiary would pay a sliding scale of copayments for each new prescription, depending on his or her income level.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49876-2003Nov16.html

[cthrumatrix]

3. and more....

Marilyn Moon, a health care policy expert with the American Institute for Research, said seniors most in need of the benefit have modest incomes and spend $4,000 to $5,000 a year on prescription drugs to treat chronic conditions.

"Those people, if they do not have low-income protections, will end up getting very small benefits overall -- about 30 percent of their drug costs are covered, not counting the premium," she said. "I think for people who have relatively high incomes and do not now have employer-based coverage, they can find this as a reasonable catastrophic protection if they can afford it.

"So I think there will be a very narrow band of people who can say unequivocally that this is a really good deal," Moon said.

[dusty64]

4. It ought to.

It's just another stealth plan to gut the program while taking credit for "fixing" it. By the time everyone realizes they've been screwed it will be too late. The Democrats need to stop this cold as they were not allowed into the meetings to create this anyway. The media will call them "obstructionists", but they need to clearly explain why this is a very BAD idea.