Umm...anyone know what happens with Medicare and Medicaid with a public option?

[Perky]

Does it get folded in or do they continue to stand alone?

[femmocrat]

1. Great question. I have been wondering about that too.

TY to anyone who knows.

[MUAD_DIB]

2. Wouldn't it make sense that they get added as part of a new system?

[Autumn]

3. I heard that they plan on

making budget cuts to those programs. :shrug:

[Bluenorthwest]

4. No one knows

and seniors are getting sick of the worry. Also no one can figure out when we have to start paying or how much they are going to expect from us. We are alright now, but a forced premium of a few hundred a month will sink us. It will be over. The end. And that is what I think about every morning and every night. Especially since seeing that the bill contains anti-gay equality language to make sure we pay extra and have no rights.

[Perky]

5. I am just saying that $40 B a year for the uninsured

seems alot less than what is going into exisiting public programs

[ipaint]

7. I'm looking for an answer to that too

I did find this in my search, looks like the drug co's are making out just fine.

Drug Makers Score Early Wins as Plan Takes Shape

...The missing items include two planks of Mr. Obama's campaign platform: allowing cheaper drugs to be imported from Canada and giving the federal government the right to negotiate Medicare drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies.

While the industry has engaged in vigorous lobbying just as Mr. Obama took office, that alone doesn't explain all the success. Reimportation and Medicare drug-price negotiation are largely symbolic and Congressional researchers have said they won't save much money in the long run.

Meanwhile, a separate Senate committee voted this week as part of its health bill to give branded biotechnology drugs at least 12 years of market exclusivity, a defeat for makers of cheaper copycat medicines. "This is the best year the drug industry has had in decades," said Nancy LeaMond of AARP, the seniors' lobby, which is seeking greater price-cutting on drugs.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124779006528954995.html

[backscatter712]

14. I'm wondering if Obama's trying to get PhRMA to throw AHIP under the bus.

In exchange for letting the pharmcos get what they want (lots of money for their pills) they endorse health care reform, and that might put lobbyist pressure on our congresscritters to throw the insurance lobby under the bus.

Divide and conquer, though health care reform is likely to have lots of pharmco giveaways in it...

[colinmom71]

6. I think it would depend upon how the "public option" is scripted...

If it provides coverage either similar to or superior to Medicare, then I'd imagine that Medicare would be disbanded in conjunction with the advent of public coverage (i.e. - transference of current Medicare patients to the new plan automatically at the same or less expense and conditions). I'd thus also guess that Medicaid patients would also be transfered over, but will be provided supplemented coverage of co-pays and deductibles by the government in consideration of their reduced income status (due to disability, job loss, or age - child in poverty situation, etc.).

What I said above is what I hope for. What I say from here is what I fear...

The problem becomes if the upcoming legislation waters-down a public health care option to the point that private insurance (barely affordable for even employed middle class families) and even waiting for Medicare become regarded as the better option. Lower, working, and some middle class families will see little to no benefit from such a compromised and hen-pecked bill. They will feel resentful of a health care bill that does not better their lives - either in regards to finances OR overall healthful living.

IF we wind up with a solid universal coverage plan, I think the overall American public will accept folding Medicare and Medicaid (with subsidies for the legally disabled and other vulnerable populations). I think that a lot of people concerned about the cost of a universal coverage plan forget that this would reduce their current FICA taxes to a large degree, with the subsequent health care plan tax resulting in being only nominally increased over their current contributions... If at all.

[ipaint]

8. Some info

Much of Obama's health reform is to be funded by cutting Medicare and Medicaid, which cover our oldest and poorest citizens, including many of those in nursing homes.

These cuts could not come at a worse time. Residents who are 65 or older currently make up 13 percent of the population. But their number will double to 88.5 million by mid-century. The baby boomers will continue padding the senior population until it accounts for one in five U.S. residents by 2030.

Pennsylvania ranks third nationally in the percentage of the population that's 65 or older, and fourth in residents 85 or older. Two million of our 12 million residents are at least 65. By 2020, that number will increase by 50 percent.

Compounding matters, funds for Social Security could run dry by 2037, and those for Medicare by 2017. Meanwhile, Obama has conceded that the unemployment rate will rise past 10 percent within a year, cutting down on the number of employees contributing to these programs.

One-third of those who enter nursing homes paying for their care eventually "spend down" their resources and qualify for Medicaid. With the stock market collapse eating up nest eggs, people are depending on Medicaid much earlier.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20090716_Big_cuts_won_t_buy_better_care.html

The article goes on to say 50 billion in medicare cuts.

[backscatter712]

10. Most of those cuts are the inefficient stuff.

For example, Obama cut a deal with the pharmcos for cheaper drugs - that'll save a huge amount of money. The bill would also cut overpayments to Medicare Advantage - that's been nothing but a Bushie giveaway to the insurance companies. Formulas are being redone - primary-care-physicians have been underpaid by Medicare, and that will be fixed, and that will be paid for by reducing payments to other specialties and for other treatments that are way too high.

And there's a provision in the reform bill that gradually closes the Part D donut hole!

[ipaint]

12. What's this

Meanwhile, a separate Senate committee voted this week as part of its health bill to give branded biotechnology drugs at least 12 years of market exclusivity, a defeat for makers of cheaper copycat medicines.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124779006528954995.html

Also medicare and medicaid run on a very low overhead. Will for profit insurance companies be required to match that low overhead in order to maximize efficiencies and save money for the folks mandated to buy from them?

[ipaint]

11. And again

President Obama Saturday proposed to rein in spending on federal health programs for the elderly and the poor by an additional $313 billion over the next decade, bringing his total proposed savings to nearly $950 billion - enough to cover most of the cost of sweeping health reform, said a top adviser.

In his weekly radio address, Obama proposed limiting the growth of Medicare fee-for-service payments, taking hospitals and other health providers at their word that they will reduce costs. Obama also proposed slashing subsidies to hospitals that treat uninsured patients, on the theory that very few uninsured patients will remain in the wake of reform.

Obama also suggested reducing payments to drug companies that serve Medicare recipients. Advisers declined to release details, saying the idea was still under discussion.

http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=31117

[backscatter712]

9. Going by the House bill...

IIRC, Medicaid rules would be modified, so that if you make less than 133% of the federal poverty line, you get Medicaid, and your health care is free. If you make between 133% and 400% of FPL, you get sliding-scale subsidies that go either to private insurers in the exchange or to the public option, and your total premiums and out-of-pocket expenses are capped on that sliding scale. Once you're above 400% FPL, you no longer get subsidies, and because of the individual and employer mandates, you're required to have insurance, partially paid for by your employer, and again, you get either grandfathered insurance policies, or you get in on the exchange and can pick private or public options in the exchange.

And IIRC (I probably don't,) Medicare is still there for those who are 65+ years old, or those who are disabled. The House health care reform bill does include a provision that would close up the donut hole in Part D.

[invictus]

13. Medicare will stay the same. Medicaid will probably get folded into the public option ...

... since anyone eligible for Medicaid would also be eligible for the public option.