Medicare Payments for Elderly to Rise 17%

[louis c]

(Reuters)

Older Americans will have to pay about 17 percent more next year-the largest increase in Medicare's history-for their government run health insurance, U.S. officials announced Friday.

Starting in January, the elderly will pay $78.20 per month for non-hospital services, up $11.60 from $66.60 this year, the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services said. The nearly $80 premium follows the largest annual hike since Medicare began nearly 40 years ago.


Link


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=571&u=/nm/20040903/hl_nm/health_medicare_dc_4&printer=1

[olddem43]

1. How did that miss getting into Bush's acceptance speech?

[louis c]

3. By the way

last year the hike was 13%, which was the second largest hike.

Together, the increase is over 30%.

[Cleita]

2. And no doubt the health care providers will get less in payments

and fewer services will be covered, a trend that has occurred during the Bush administration. But who cares about old people anyway? Remember when Jonah Goldberg, spawn of Lucienne, waxed so eloquently about who cares about pills for old people.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

4. Medicare doesn't even cover my mom's breast exams. n/t

[Cleita]

11. It should cover mammograms on a yearly basis.

I will be eligible for Medicare in a few months so I'll know better then how it works for women. It keeps my husband alive.

[goddess40]

22. Mammograms

Medicare will not cover mammograms unless you have had a history of breast cancer or are in the high risk catagory for breast cancer. Otherwise they consider it "preventative" and will not cover it.

[Cleita]

26. Thanks I didn't know that.

I intend to get a medigap policy, so I'd better make sure it covers what Medicare doesn't.

[Maccagirl]

5. My mom just got a $595.00 bill

for my father when he was in a nursing home for 3 doctor visits. We lost him on August 22nd after a valiant fight against congestive heart failure. A good, decent, honest man who loved his family, his work, a good joke and the Democratic Party. I am proud to be his daughter and will miss him dearly.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

6. I'm sorry about your father

I lost mine to heart failure as well in '87. That's rough.
Will your mom be able to handle the bill?

[Maccagirl]

8. Thanks BVE

for the kind words. She'll be able to handle it financially, yes, but she kept saying over and over "that much for 3 visits?". My brother is looking into it.

[mbee]

24. The Baby Boomers need to get something done about these sleezy

nursing homes. They are taking the tiny assets the working class have saved. The rich know how to work the system and end up paying nothing, but the honest middle-class gives their all to their country and gets slapped in the face. I know Seniors who once were very much Middle-Class and could afford things, but now are very poor due to the rip-offs mostly associated with health care and elder-care.

[Cleita]

31. This is the situation those haughty, why do I have to pay for the

medical expenses and pills for old people, do find themselves in when it hits home. It's not only the elderly but young families that will be sent to the poorhouse from the expenses of catastrophic illness. Insurance doesn't help because you are generally dropped once you have to use their "benefits".

[Toucano]

25. My condolences

and sympathy for your loss.

[whistle]

7. There is really only one way to deal with this situation....

...of medicare, medicaid and social security. Instead of a constant percent on medicare/medicaid of 1.5% employee and 1.5% employer and a capped social security of 6.4% employee and 7.7% employer up to $75,000 annually, the current percent should apply up to $200,000 annual income, then followed with a graduated scale that increases 1% for every additional $200,000 annual income until the combined employee/employer percent hits 30% with no payment ceiling.

[louis c]

9. I wish I could understand your math

but I'm sure you're correct.

My solution is a little easier to understand.

Throw out that piece of shit in the white house and all his asshole friends in congress.

Remember, Medicare passed congress without a single Repuke vote in the mid-sixties.

[Cleita]

10. Medicare works well when it's run like it was intended.

If we extended Medicare to everyone, beefed it up to cover all the basics like Canada's Medicare, LOCKED THE BOX TO THE TRUST FUND, like Al Gore wanted to, we wouldn't have the health care crisis we have today. One of the advantages of extending Medicare to everyone in a single payer system is that the adminstration is already in place and works very efficiently when Congress and the White House aren't running interference.

Okay, now I'm waiting for the naysayers.

[whistle]

17. You won't hear me disagreeing, the key is to get Bush out....

...and the neo-cons out before they cause a total train wreak.

[Yupster]

12. But isn't $ 78 per month

for health insurance premiums still incredibly cheap?

I'm sure it doesn't cover half the costs of the program.

[Cleita]

14. So you are picking on senior citizens on a fixed income.

Yes, it is cheap I suppose, except that you have been paying into it your whole life, so I don't think you should be paying again. Do you?

[Yupster]

16. Two points

1. Seniors are not on fixed incomes. They get cost of living raises every year which is more than I get.

2. Medicare only started in the mid 60's. If you're an 80 year old like my parents, you have not been paying into it your whole life.

[louis c]

19. Do your math

A 13% increase in 2004, and a 17% increase in 2005.

The cost of living for Social Security is between 1%-2% a year.

Let's see 13% and 17% seems a little larger than 1% and 2%.

I like your reasoning, though. "They get a cost of living increase, which is more than I get".

Bush got to fuck me, so why shouldn't he get to fuck my Mom and Dad, it's only fair.

And people wonder why we're running behind, even some DUers don't get it, so what chance do we have with the general public?

[Yupster]

33. Saying that seniors medical costs are

going up at a far greater rate than their social security increases is a true statement.

Saying seniors are on a fixed income is a joke when they get an automatic increase every January. If something is automatically increased, it can't be fixed.

[louis c]

38. Correct

but they are tied to a meager COL increase. It's not like they can go out and get a better job, or collectively bargain for higher wages.

They can never go beyond the cost of living increase, yet the biggest component in their lives is medical needs, and that skyrockets against the COL.

Please don't repeat Repuge talking points, even if it is inadvertent, because it depresses me when I see them here.

[Cleita]

27. Okay, I guess the fifteen dollars a year CoL raise we get in our

Medicare is going to cover the extra $35 of the premium. Well, my father never paid a cent into Medicare as he was retired before it became law, but I am sure glad that no one was thinking like you when heart trouble and Parkinson's disease took over his life. Oh, part of his pension packet was health insurance for life.

But guess what? the blue chip stock company he had worked for forty-four years went out of business after 100 years of being in business. Although his pension was in a trust, his health insurance wasn't. Lucky for my mother and me that we didn't have to both go work two jobs to afford his medical care, because that is what you would be doing for your father if he didn't have Medicare.

[Yupster]

34. I'm for national health insurance for everyone

I never said I was for throwing grandma into the trash compactor.

I just said two things.

1. Seniors are not on fixed incomes. They get automatic COLAS every year. In fact, they are one of the very few groups who do get this. I sure don't.

2. As you said with your father, seniors did not pay into medicare their entire life. It just hasn't been around that long.

I believe in National Health Insurance for everyone because I believe it truly is the compassionate thing to do, and it seems the only realistic choice to me.

That doesn't mean I'm going to be spouting things that are just completely untrue though like seniors are on fixed incomes, and 80 years olds paid medicare premiums their whole life. You ca't base your argument on lies.

[Cleita]

35. Honey, as a senior whose been retired for more than a decade,

I can honestly say that my income has gone downward, not upward, and my expenses have gone only up. You are right, we aren't on fixed incomes. The pitiful cost of living raise we get from SS (so far never more than fifteen dollars a month every year) doesn't anywhere make up for the loss of interest income, which we also rely on. I mean when we first retired our interest income was 9%. You know what is now with 3% being very generous. That fifteen dollars a month doesn't make up for it, nor the increased cost of gas, electricity or prescription drugs.

Also, since we find ourselves putting emergency expenses on credit cards, we are dipping more and more into our principle to pay them off, which also lowers our interest income because we have less to receive interest on. So please don't give me that cost of living argument. In real life, it doesn't exist as a viable offset to actual increased living expenses.

I suppose I could get a job, but I already am a nurse to my husband 24/7. Then I would have to hire him a nurse, but that would be counterproductive wouldn't it? Maybe he could get a job, if they don't mind someone, who can barely walk, nods off, often passes out from overexertion and has to spend an hour of every five on dialysis.

So don't pass a broad brush over this issue, only because you are looking at one facet of it.

[Yupster]

36. Thank you for the kind greeting

You're a real cutie-pie yourself.

I'm sure you're expenses have gone up more than your income in the last four years. So have mine. so has almost everyone's. You may know things haven't been going too well lately.

Also, congratulations for having interest income. Many, many others are having to get by in the same circumstances as you without interest income.

A bit of advice, though it wasn't asked for. If you have cd's paying you 3 % and have emergencies. Don't put them on 10 % interest credit cards. Better to use your cd money. Also, you may want to look at government or agency bonds to get you into the 4-5 % range.


Also, I'm sure that the $ 15 per month increase in your social security payment will be not even noticable, as pitiful as it is.

On the other hand, I'm sure the $ 11 raise per month in medicare premiums just announced will be catastrophic.


Things are not going very well. Almost all of us are worried. Many of us are having to get by on much less than we made just a few years ago. Can we try to avoid the "my group has it worse than your group mentality?"

Especially when the complaints are about programs that others only wish they had. You know how many people have no health insurance at all? Or pay $ 900 per month for their family's health insurance. How are they supposed to feel when someone complains that their health insurance has just gone up to - gasp $ 78 per month?

[Cleita]

37. I agree with you again that everyone should have access to

quality health care. Some say it's a right. I say it's a necessity, like food. I am presently hooked up with a grass roots group who are working to get more coverage in California for those who need it especially children.

I wish we would go single payer like Canada and it could be done, but I think our war will be incremental. It will be the only way we can squeeze out the for profit health care hydra, head by head, until we kill it.

[louis c]

39. That a girl

Class warfare. The poorer class against the poorest class.

Send all your money to Halliburton.

Instead of showing compassion at the plight of the Seniors in this country, and bring them into our coalition, you continue to use Repuke talking points. Do you read your reply before you post it?

200 billion dollars trying to steal Iraqi oil to give it the obscenely rich so they can sell it to us at inflated prices so they can become even more rich and powerful. The whole time they're using our kids lives and our tax dollars to accomplish this dastardly crime.

Focus, my dear friend, focus. Every dollar spent in America, for average Americans, is an investment.

[louis c]

41. kick

[Generic Other]

30. My mom's landlord also knew when seniors got colas

He always raised the rent by the exact amount. She couldn't afford to live there after 30 years and moved in with me in 2001.

[louis c]

20. And let them eat cat food

as long as Halliburton can make Billions, why should we care about our fathers and mothers.

Holy shit, I can't believe what I'm reading here.

We might as well all be Republicans, stop the masquerade and become a one party Nation.

1984, the blueprint of our future.

[goddess40]

23. Medicare payments

Medicare only pays part of the bill. So on top of the premium those on Medicare pay quite a bit in uncovered or partially covered services.

[Cleita]

29. You can buy a medigap policy for approximately

$150 a month if you can afford one. Those who can't have to foot the co-payment out-of-pocket. So those seniors who get $600 a month in Social Security can figure out how to buy a medigap policy out of that or pay the 20% co-pay. My husband's medical bills are approximately $3,000 a month, which means his co-pay is $600 a month. so what does that senior, who only gets $600 a month to live on do?

[Yupster]

13. National health insurance

is really the only answer.

People will keep getting older and more complicated treatments will keep getting more expensive.

I don't see any long-term solution other than a national system.

[Cleita]

15. I agree.

It's very doable too, without any extra money being spent on health care, but with the advantage of covering everyone, like children and their parents.

[VOX]

18. So much for Shrub's BS about helping the elderly with medical costs.

Welcome to the **real** future.

[EndElectoral]

21. kick..Huge Kerry Issue...Needs to pump this with the elderly!!!!

[Killarney]

28. this is good info to get out there. rate a 5.

[cthrumatrix]

32. and the media questions this ? Hell no... they are in bed with the fraud

[proud patriot]

40. oh man this pisses me off

:grr: