"Medicare buy-in is not really a buy-in ... or really Medicare"

[Better Believe It]

Public Option Grand Compromise Becomes A Grand Big Nothing
By Jon Walker
December 8, 2009

Now we are getting reports that the Medicare buy-in is not really a buy-in. . . or really Medicare. Senators are looking at restricting the Medicare buy-in so completely that it will be an option for almost no one. It will likely only be for a very tiny segment of poor and very unhealthy 55-64 year-olds:

Negotiators are considering limiting consumers to those who would qualify for high-risk insurance pools already set up under the Senate’s health care legislation. This would mean primarily those who have been uninsured for a certain amount of time, have a history of poor health or are unable to get insurance because of a preexisting condition.

Adding insult to injury, the “Medicare” this tiny fraction of people could buy in to might end up not even really being Medicare:

Conrad said that he’d propose having the Medicare buy-in be treated as “a separate pool” that could have negotiated rates, rather than those set by the existing Medicare program.

Thanks Conrad! You just radically increased the federal cost of the program, reduced the quality of coverage, and sent the premiums this small group of older Americans would need to pay through the roof.

But wait, it gets worse. This very expensive non-Medicare that almost no one could buy in to might only be a temporary stopgap for just three years if a handful of conservatives get their way:

The Medicare “buy-in” for people 55 to 64 would be available until government subsidies start flowing in 2014 to new health insurance markets designed for people who now have trouble getting and keeping affordable coverage.

This is in no way a “Medicare buy-in.” As I feared, this has become—in only two days—a Medicare buy-in in name only. If the program is saddled with this massive set of restrictions detailed here, then it would, at most, help barely a few thousands Americans–that is if the program can even manage to function after being so crippled, which should be a serious concern.

Read the full article at:

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/08/public-option-grand-compromise-becomes-a-grand-big-nothing/

[waterscalm]

1. Thanks much for this.

[avaistheone1]

2. Conrad is a bastard. He is doing his best to ruin Medicare.

[inna]

15. yep, exactly. see this related thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7191708

[flyarm]

3. but don't worry there is some kind of GRAND CHESS GAME coming!!

or so some here would like to have you believe..

You know like a t-shirt I have that says BELIEVE...IN SANTA!!

We should all wait and wait and believe with all hopey hope that some grand chess game is coming..and a wonderful package will arrive with beautiful wrapping and all will be just fine!!

I have more hope that the real Santa is coming than any damn health care reform..that is for sure!

Thanks for posting I read that last night at Firedoglake, they are all over this , but they are another web site that the DLC'ers have thrown under the hopey bus! It's getting darn crowded under that hopey bus..

[flyarm]

4. CWA Slams Senate Health Care Bill: “Would Make our Health Care System Worse”

http://workinprogress.firedoglake.com/2009/11/20/cwa-slams-senate-health-care-bill/

CWA Slams Senate Health Care Bill: “Would Make our Health Care System Worse”


By: Michael Whitney Friday November 20, 2009

The Communications Workers of America just put out a statement hitting the Senate health care bill, specifically slamming the regressive excise tax on health care plans. Their statement (emphasis mine):

The Senate bill’s proposal to tax health care benefits would make our health care system worse, not better. This new tax, which is opposed by the majority of Americans, would affect millions of families. Average families who clearly don’t have “Cadillac” health care plans would owe thousands of dollars in new taxes.

Taxing health care benefits is a bad public policy that would hit millions of families hard as employers cut back health care benefits to avoid the tax. The idea that this tax will curtail rising premiums is just wrong.

CWA supports health care reform that is fairly financed, and the House bill has a better approach. It fully funds health care reform by making large employers pay toward their workers’ coverage, adding a modest surtax on the wealthiest Americans and including a public option.

CWA will work with Senate Majority Leader Reid and other Senators to produce a bill that will provide the real health care reform that working and middle income families deserve.

Those are strong words from one of the country’s most influential unions, going beyond the AFL-CIO’s tepid praise and SEIU’s lauding of the Senate for the bill. CWA was part of an ad pushed by AFL-CIO member unions last month hitting the same excise tax in the Senate Finance Committee bill, but appears to have gone one step further than other major unions with this statement.

[inna]

7. You should make this an OP.

It is really important, and more people should read this.

[damntexdem]

5. Progressives need to fight to keep this Medicare, and available to all 55-64.

And ultimately to all of all ages.

[flyarm]

6. good luck..the sell out and the fleecing of America has already happened. eom

[vaberella]

8. All information on this is superficial at best.

And also...majority of Dems and seemingly economists disagree with you. I'll wait to see what the CBO says to this.

[dflprincess]

17. It is odd why they don't seem to releasing many details of their latest scam

just a few buzz words.

Well, it's not really "odd" - it's pretty much par.

[Kitsune]

9. Ugh. I really hope this isn't true.

If it is, this could very well backfire in a horrible way on the Democrats.

[Enrique]

10. of course, because the bill has to suck

the dems have given the health insurance industry veto power over this legislation, so of course that industry isn't going to let anything good be added. Someone comes up with a good idea and the insurance companies say ok, we might be able to live with that but you have to make it suck a lot more first.

[inna]

11. KR.

Darn, I can't believe the unreccers. It's like voting against one's self-interest - but then again, what else is new. :shrug:

[inna]

12. Here, sign a petition:

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/09/obama-fail/


"During his campaign, President Obama gave us his word: "...when I'm President, we're going to make drug and insurance companies compete for their customers just like every other business in America."

But today, the insurance companies are claiming "victory."

If he signs a health care bill with a triggered public option, he'll be turning his back on the promise he made to his voters. Will Obama let the interests of the private insurance industry seal the fate of millions of desperate Americans? Or will he stand up to the insurance companies and pass a real public option?"


Of course, that question is primarily rhetorical at this point. Disgusting, simply disgusting, Mr. President.

[clear eye]

14. Thanks. Done.

TAX on health benefits?? For working people of all incomes?? In a recession??

[ChiciB1]

16. Signed It Earlier... But I Doubt It Will Matter All That Much! Every time I

leave here and come back later I hear MORE frustrating news!

You know that post about REVOLUTION that was posted recently... I think the boiling point is getting near! Sorry, I just keep reading things that sound like the Repukes did it, but find out that it's the Democrats!

How much more is coming down the pike?? And please don't ask me to list them all, I just keep seeing one thing here and another there! Pretty soon this administration is going to be filled with half of them being Repukes!

I just don't know how much more I can take! I really need to stop checking in, my daughter is right when she tells me to just stop following this stuff! My addiction with politics is probably not good for my health at all! I'm stressed out all the time! I just wish I could stop trying to keep up on what's happening, but I keep coming back. It IS an addiction, of that I'm sure and I need to kick this habit!

[inna]

18. I know exactly how you feel, I feel the same way sometimes...

:pals:


:hug:

[ChiciB1]

20. Thanks For Your Reply AND Hugs!! Right Back At Ya!

:hug: :pals: and one more :hug:

[ProgressOnTheMove]

13. What matters is they've opened the floodgates and the debate. It's only time now single payer is on

the table. :)

[Better Believe It]

19. Who will have access and how much will premiums cost?

So far, it is unclear who would have access to Medicare in the new Senate compromise or how much they would have to pay.

Based on numbers supplied by Towers Perrin, a benefits-consulting company, Medicare could cost about $750 a month. House and Senate reform bills already proposed contain subsidies for low-income people of all ages to buy private insurance. Whether those subsidies would extend to Medicare is unclear.

Most previous proposals would have prohibited businesses and workers with company health plans from buying into Medicare.

According to an October report from America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade group, the average cost of privately purchased insurance for 55- to 59-year-olds is $4,895 per year for an individual and $8,414 for a family. For 60- to 64-year-olds, it costs $5,755 for an individual and $9,952 for a family.

Mark Pauly, a health economist at the Wharton School, said the government would almost certainly have to subsidize the price of Medicare to make it competitive with private plans.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/78944372.html

[Better Believe It]

21. And now they are having second thoughts about this so-called Medicare expansion!

[clear eye]

22. This truly seems a way to discredit Medicare, so "Medicare for all" becomes unappealing.

The slogan "Medicare for all" has been a rallying cry for single-payer, causing the corporate shills to look for a way to combat it. What better way than to create a program called "Medicare" designed to be a budget-buster by taking in only the highest cost people and making coverage and payouts problematic. Then encourage dupes like Rep. Weiner to go around (e.g. on the Rachel Maddow show) saying this is a step toward single-payer, to positively prove that s.p. advocates are promoting an expensive & unworkable gov't program.

This is evil.