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Politics or Health Care
November 29, 2007 • Volume 7, Issue 46It is looking more and more certain that America's nine million uninsured children will remain without health care coverage because partisan politics will prevent an agreement.
The Senate reached bipartisan agreement on a bill, supported by 80 senators, which would cover five million of these children, but a veto by President Bush is preventing it from becoming law.
The Bush administration argues that the bill will cover too many children from middle-income families, but it also objects that the bill will make it too easy for lower-income families to sign up. And the president refuses to pay for covering kids by imposing higher taxes on cigarettes. Those objections pretty much encompass the entire bill, and many observers believe the true motivation behind the veto is the administration’s desire to prevent what could be perceived as a victory on health care for the Democratic-controlled Congress in advance of the next election.
Those same partisan considerations now threaten the hopes of passing some important Medicare reforms, all of which have support from both Republican and Democratic senators, including:
- an increase in the asset limits for Extra Help, allowing more low-income people with Medicare to keep a modest amount of retirement savings and still receive drug coverage with no doughnut hole;
- an expansion of Medicare Savings Programs so that individuals with Medicare living on less than $1,276 per month receive help paying their Part B premium, now nearly $100 a month;
- an end to Medicare's discrimination against people with mental illness by putting outpatient mental health coverage on par with care for all other ailments;
- better Medicare coverage of preventive services;
- a reduction—not even elimination—in overpayments to Medicare private health plans to pay for these improvements and to prevent a cut in Medicare reimbursement to doctors.
Agreement on how to address these issues hinges on the willingness of all senators to work in a bipartisan manner. There is hope. Two architects of the bipartisan agreement to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, Senators Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, and Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, will likely play a key role in negotiations on Medicare. If they reprise their role as honest brokers and resist voices determined to put politics above the lives of people with Medicare, then we have a shot at real reform. Older Americans and people with disabilities deserve better than obstructionism and a peevish desire to gain partisan advantage.
Please tell your senator that now is the time for real Medicare reform.
Medical Record
“I live off $1,231 per month and I am in the doughnut hole. I can barely make ends meet and have chronic health problems. I have a meager savings that will be gone soon. It is not fair that older Americans have to pay more for their medications. I have tried every means possible to get help with my prescriptions. I consider myself well-informed and do not understand why a doughnut hole is necessary. From my perspective, we are lining the pockets of the drug companies and some elected officials” (Story submitted to the Part D Monitoring Project, Medicare Rights Center, November 9, 2007).
“The following targeted improvements would help to ensure that millions more Medicare beneficiaries in greatest need receive the assistance they deserve.
(Letter to the Senate, Leadership Council of Aging Organizations, October 24, 2007).
- Raise the asset limits for the MSP and LIS programs to be more reflective of seniors with limited incomes who have managed to save a modest nest egg for retirement.
- Allow low-income beneficiaries to enroll in the LIS program at any time, without a penalty.
- Make the Qualified Individual (QI) program (one of the Medicare Savings Programs) permanent and expand income eligibility to 150 percent of the federal poverty level.
- Eliminate Part D cost-sharing for full benefit dual eligible beneficiaries receiving care through home- and community-based care waivers.
- Simplify the LIS and MSP application forms and processes”
“Linda Fishman, who served as Grassley’s chief health aide, said, ‘When Senators Grassley and Baucus work together, health legislation happens. They have a real knack for finding the sweet spot of what makes for good and reasonable health policy.’ Liz Fowler, who served in the same position for Baucus, added that the two Senators ‘believe they were sent to Washington to get something done for people’” (“Health Affairs Presents Award for Bipartisan Collaboration to Senators Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley,” Health Affairs, November 1, 2007).
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Medicare Part D Monitoring Project
The Medicare Rights Center (MRC) would like to hear about your experience, or that of someone you know, enrolled in a Medicare private drug plan. With information about what the issues are with Medicare Part D, we will be able to demand that those problems be fixed.
Submit your story at http://www.medicarerights.org/partdstories.html.
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Asclepios—named for the Greek and Roman god of medicine who, acclaimed for his healing abilities, was at one point the most worshipped god in Greece—is a weekly e-newsletter designed to keep you up-to-date with Medicare program and policy issues, and advance advocacy strategies to address them. Please help build awareness of key Medicare consumer issues by forwarding this action alert to your friends and encouraging them to subscribe today.
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The Medicare Rights Center (MRC) is the largest independent source of Medicare information and assistance in the United States. Founded in 1989, MRC helps older adults and people with disabilities get good, affordable health care.
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