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Without Health Care Reform, Medicare Costs Will Skyrocket |
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A new report finds that if health care costs are not brought under control through comprehensive health care reform, Medicare premiums and out-of-pocket costs will soon eat up more than one-third of a retiree’s Social Security benefits. A typical senior couple would need to save $300,000 for medical bills not covered by Medicare.
The report, America’s Seniors and Health Insurance Reform: Protecting Coverage and Strengthening Medicare, was issued by the Department of Health and Human Services. Says Edward C. Coyle, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans:
Today’s report shines a bright light on why retirees have a lot to gain from health reform. Moreover, it shows the wholly unacceptable medical and financial consequences of inaction.
I hope that deeply disturbing findings such as these will move the health care debate away from divisive, insurance industry-backed scare tactics and toward swift passage of a health care bill that will help older Americans.
The report notes that some of the rising Medicare costs can be traced to the extra subsidies paid to private insurance companies in the Medicare Advantage program—the Bush-era experiment in privatizing Medicare. It also points to soaring prescription drug costs, waste and fraud by some Medicare service providers for such things as home care. The report also says:
Medicare is not isolated from the rest of the health system. Its costs—and cost problems—reflect the gaps and problems that younger Americans experience….A recent study found that previously uninsured near-elderly adults with heart disease, stroke or diabetes had 13 percent more doctor’s visits, 20 percent more hospitalizations and 50 percent higher total medical costs once under Medicare than people with these chronic diseases who had prior insurance.
Health care reform legislation now being debated will help lower costs to seniors by:
- Closing the “donut hole” in Medicare Part D, the provision that guarantees insurance companies keep getting their monthly premiums even when they aren’t giving you any benefits.
- Allowing Medicare to negotiate for volume discounts with the drug companies. Savvy seniors know you should pay less when you buy in bulk.
- Ending wasteful taxpayer subsidies to the private insurance companies who run Medicare Advantage plans.
- Keeping seniors healthier by eliminating the co-pay for Medicare preventive services such as checkups and cancer screenings.
- Offer an opportunity for early retirees to buy into Medicare.
Coyle also notes that as part of a health care reform package, a strong public option will hold insurance companies accountable and keep their premiums and business practices in check. Says Coyle:
Medicare is a great American success story—it has reduced senior poverty by two-thirds. Today’s report shows how health reform can both expand Medicare’s benefits for seniors and also strengthen Medicare’s finances by eliminating wasteful taxpayer subsidies to the big insurance companies.
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Who is against jobs paying family-sustaining wages? Who is opposed to health care for all? The profiteers who take our jobs offshore, that’s who! The politicians who they buy off, that’s who! That’s the unregulated “free market” for you!
It is both disconcerting and sad that some workers in this nation pay homage to the very same corporatists and their surrogates who are tying to rob them of their jobs, their health care, and their pensions. The old cliché “all boats rise on an incoming ride” means nothing to those who are left to sink or swim in the turbulent waters of what is euphemistically called “the global economy”. It is time that we act in our collective self-interests. Our communities are weakened by unemployment and/or low wage jobs.
Unionization raises living standards. Facts abound that prove that to be so.
The statue of Lady Justice shows her holding balanced measuring scales. They symbolize that justice must be balanced.
Currently, the scales are horribly askew. As working class men and women, we do not begrudge the wealth of the few, but we most certainly take exception to those who amass fortunes at the expense of others. None of us would do that to a loved one, and neither should we allow anyone to do it to us.
Isn’t it tragically ironic that the 400 richest families in the U.S. have a combined total net worth of $1.57 trillion? That’s the equivalent of $5,150 for every man, woman and child in our nation! How, in a “just” society, are a few families able to attain such wealth while all around us people are suffering? The answer is quite obvious: Justice has been sold to those most able to afford it. And, of course, none of us fit that category.
History shows us that the more vibrant the labor movement is, the more secure are all who toil for wages.
It is time for working men and women to put aside petty disagreements and instead work together to secure passage on the boats that rise on an incoming tide. Increased unionization will do much to advance that just cause.
And to the Demopublicans or Republicrats who stand in our way, we must assure them that their days in elective office are numbered unless they change their conduct.
Support the original Employee Free Choice Act! Support true health care reform (not some watered-down “public option”). Demand lawmakers to do the same! In the final analysis, we must embrace the concept that justice means we are all meant to be in the same boat. That is what the word “united”, as in the “United States of America” represents. It is up to us to act in our collective self-interests. No one will do it for us!