There were so many things wrong with the 2003 expansion of Medicare into drug coverage that the bill, from this progressive/liberal's perspective, just made the grade of better to pass than not. But now is the time to fix it. And we can begin with the removal of the introduction of means testing into concept of entitlements that the GOP is using to turn these programs into welfare - welfare that can be so easily cut, or "block granted" as Reagan called cuts to social programs, as we continue to pay the tax dedicated to the "entitlement" and watch the money instead go to the companies owned by rich that produce the toys and services for the military.
Under the 2003 GOP Drug bill the premium for Medicare Part B is going to be tied to the insured's income via a "means" test, requiring, starting in 2007, the premium for Medicare Part B to increase substantially via a surcharge for 2 million high income individuals. This is the "high income ploy" that the GOP want to add to Social Security and the method they are using to fight the removal of the payroll tax wage cap - saying that no wage cap would give the rich large benefits. Any liberal/progressive should celebrate large checks going to the rich because the progressive structure of the Social Security benefit formula means such checks result in a lowering of the payroll tax rate for everyone. And for the poor the payroll tax is the only income tax they pay - so this is the only way to get the poor a tax cut that has real meaning. But the GOP piously pass laws to means test entitlements, and the uninformed easily led by nose by GOP lobbyists Democrats in Congress go along. It will only be though internet grass roots pressure that this will change.
We are talking about a relatively small monthly premium increase (you don't think the GOP would actually hurt the rich in any real way, do you?) - but one that sounds large when expressed as a percentage. The surcharge began this year, and in 2008 the percentages will double, and in 2009 the percentage will be triple the 2007 rate. Again in terms of actual dollars, the total increase in cost for a year is less than a meal for the gang at a 5 star restaurant for even the richest - but it has the intended GOP effect of calling into question the concept of "entitlement".
Since no one I know over age 65 made over $80,000 single or $160,000 married in 2005, no one I know is being hit by the surcharge in 2007. But the ability to get this kind of destruction of the entitlement concept past our Democratic Party members is disgusting. Did they not realize what a major change this was - were they blinded by the idea of getting a large percentage increase (220% in 2009) of a small dollar number that will hit the folks making more than $400,000? There is more information about this at
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MMAUpdate. But our reaction should not be to learn how it works - it should be to repeal this as part of an Iraq war funding bill.
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