Rejected on Social Security, Bush Stealthily Tries to Privatize Medicare

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/06/07/rejected-on-social-security-bush-stealthily-tries-to-privatize-medicare/

Rejected on Social Security, Bush Stealthily Tries to Privatize Medicare

by James Parks, Jun 7, 2007

Two years after the American people rejected the Bush administration’s plan to privatize Social Security, the White House now is trying quietly to privatize Medicare.

Here’s how: The Republican Congress gave big insurance companies that provide Medicare insurance what amounts to a huge subsidy under the so-called “Medicare Advantage” program. These private insurers were supposed to introduce competition into the Medicare system and reduce costs.

But after the private insurers got their hands into the cookie jar, they began taking more than their share. Instead of reducing costs, the new plan means the federal government, on average, is paying private plans 12 percent more than it costs to treat people on traditional Medicare, according to the Congressional Budget Office and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.

This year alone, according to the Alliance for Retired Americans, the federal government will overpay the insurance industry $7.5 billion this year and an estimated $160 billion over the next 10 years.

Today, Americans United for Change, along with health care and senior advocates, called on Congress to change the Medicare rules so that Medicare Advantage insurers are paid the same rate as other Medicare providers. Otherwise, they warn, the system could run out of money.

As Edward Coyle, executive director of the Alliance, which represents 3 million retirees and seniors, told a Capitol Hill press conference:

Medicare Advantage threatens the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund. As the Bush administration continues to sound alarms bells about the Trust Fund, they ought to start by ending these egregious subsidies to the insurance industry.

The outrageous waste and abuse in the Medicare Advantage program is part of our larger, misguided privatization of Medicare. We’ve turned too much of Medicare over to Wall Street at the expense of the people who need help on Main Street.

FULL story at link.

[kurth]

1. Why is this motherfucker still on our payroll?

[unlawflcombatnt]

2. Advantage Plus

Thanks for giving this issue coverage. This is simply a handout to HMOs and the medical insurance industry. It is money that goes into the pockets of HMOs and insurance companies, and does nothing to improve medical care.