Gut Punch To Seniors: Republicans Are Done Pretending
“Should Congress have cut Medicare half a trillion dollars to pay for ObamaCare?” asked a 2010 ad for Republican newcomer Renee Ellmers in North Carolina’s 2nd congressional district.
That theme — “Obama’s coming for your Medicare!” — helped Ellmers and GOP candidates across the nation consolidate the senior vote, winning that crucial voting bloc by a 59-38 margin. In 2008, Democrats won seniors by 49-48. The dramatic shift was a massive component of the GOP wave.
It was a dishonest attack, of course. The Democratic healthcare law cut $126 billion from Medicare Advantage over 10 years, not half a trillion. And Medicare Advantage, which allowed seniors to get healthcare via private insurers, was an inefficient and wasteful experiment to see whether private companies could deliver health services more efficiently than the government. It failed. In fact, Medicare Advantage cost 11 percent more to run than standard Medicare for identical services.
Yet “fiscally responsible” Republicans successfully demagogued the issue all the way to a majority, winning precious senior support with promises to “protect Medicare.” Those promises are now officially history. Republicans are now rewarding seniors for their vote by punching them in the gut.
GOP Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.) has fired the first shot in a new war to destroy the benefit structure that seniors paid for throughout their working lives. Under his plan, seniors will no longer enroll in Medicare, but rather receive vouchers to try and secure care through private insurers. Ryan’s plan delays implementation for 10 years to ward off the wrath of current seniors, but the end result is the same — the elimination of a program Republicans pretended to protect.
After all, if the plan is so great for seniors, why wait until 2021 to implement it?
Ryan’s plan would cap the growth of vouchers to a hair over the rate of inflation. However, the cost of medical services has far outpaced inflation. So what happens when the vouchers aren’t enough to cover the cost of expensive life-saving medical procedures? If Republicans won’t bargain with drug companies or limit reimbursements to doctors (and they won’t), the only thing left would be real-world death panels.
In other words, seniors would die, needlessly and prematurely.
It is no coincidence that Republicans are using this moment to try and discredit the AARP, which will undoubtedly push back against this irresponsible plan. The House Ways and Means Committee has launched an investigation into the organization’s finances, arguing that its support for last year’s healthcare reform measure should invalidate its tax-exempt status. “Republicans are desperate to try to break the trust that America’s seniors have in AARP,” said Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) during the committee hearings. “They need to do so before they announce their budget that will devastate Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid.”
If Republicans were serious about containing healthcare costs, they would take a fresh look at a public option, allowing Americans to choose government-run insurance that would compete against private insurers. But Republicans don’t really care about providing quality care at reasonable prices — they care about enriching their insurance lobbyist friends.
Seniors allowed themselves to be taken in by the GOP in 2010. But their choice now is obvious. Republicans are done pretending.
By: Markos Moulitsas, The Hill, April 5, 2011
Health Reform-If Not Now, When?
Yesterday, Sen Ben Nelson of Nebraska indicated that he was throwing his support behind the Senate reform package, in effect providing the 60th vote to keep the reform process going forward. With Nelson’s announcement followed by the press conference of Majority Leader Harry Reid, it did not take very long for the “diarrhea of the mouth” to begin flowing. One would have thought that all of the teens had just scaled the chain link fence at the local reform school and were now running through the streets yelling and screaming in a state of complete chaos. And yes, the Party of No surfaced in their usual choreographed splendor, foaming and seething at the mouth. Over the last couple of months, just about everyone on the planet has griped and moaned about not getting exactly what they wanted. Progressives are unhappy, anti-abortionists are unhappy, pro-choice groups are unhappy, those for gay rights are unhappy, Ed Schultz is unhappy, Keith Olbermann is unhappy, Racheal Maddow is unhappy and republications…well, they are just themselves…Mitch McConnell, Tom Coburn, John McCain. Theodore Roosevelt aptly noted that “Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe”.
This morning I watched the usual television pundits join the fray. There was George Will, Joe Scarborough, John Kyle, Tavis Smiley, David Gregory, George Stephanopoulos, the cast of CNN and the buffoons over at Fox. The interesting thing in all of this is that everyone seems to have forgotten that we are suppose to be talking about health reform, the same topic that we have been talking about for at least the last forty years. No wonder everyone is so up in arms.
Today, Maine Senators Snowe and Collins went on record indicating their non-support for the Senate bill. In her press release today, Sen Snowe stated that “ I deeply regret that I cannot support the pending Senate legislation as it currently stands, given my continued concerns with the measure and an artificial and arbitrary deadline of completing the bill before Christmas that is shortchanging the process on this monumental and trans-generational effort”. “There is absolutely no reason to be hurtling headlong to a Christmas deadline”. Sen Collins , god bless her, noted in her press statement “That is why I am so disappointed that the partisan legislation before the Senate falls far short of what should be the goals of reform.” It is unfair that republicans were allowed to offer only seven amendments to a bill that affects every single citizen and one-sixth of our nation’s economy.” She went on to say that “The health legislation before the Senate has enormous consequences for our economy and our society. The Senate missed the opportunity to produce true, bipartisan health reform.”
Reform…a very interesting word, a transitive verb that means 1) to put or change into an improved form or condition 2) to amend or improve by change of form or removal of faults or abuses 3) to induce or cause to abandon evil ways. As one who has been for a public option from the start and thus far not getting exactly what I wanted either, I venture to believe that the current Senate bill is about reform. The bill establishes a framework of exchanges that will go a long way for many who cannot afford health insurance by making billions of dollars available in federal help to allow people to buy coverage through these exchanges and through expanded Medicaid. The bill also places new regulations on private insurers that reduces their ability to discriminate against the sick while at the same time, preventing the insurers from undermining the security of these same people. Additionally, insurers will be required to spend more of their premium revenues on clinical services and quality activities. There will be an immediate ban on pre-existing condition exclusions for children, patient protections for choice of doctors, restrictions on annual limits of benefits and accountability for excessive rate increases. By definition, this is reform…a change to improve.
Unfortunately Senators Snowe and Collins, you are on the wrong side of this issue. You both are intelligent and learned people. Sen Snowe, how many more generations must pass before you feel you have had enough time to make an informed decision. Are 40 plus years not enough? It’s not as though you are a first time Senator. And Senator Collins, the words “unfair, true reform, and bipartisan health reform” are just not going to cut it. Health and costs go hand-in-hand. Fixing healthcare goes a long way towards fixing the economy. At every turn, the “process” has been bastardized by your Republican party. I am far more interested in results than in process. I am certain that all of those people who do not have health insurance, all of those who are under-insured, all of those who are paying extortion- like insurance premiums, all of those who are paying exorbitant out-of -pocket expenses, and all of those who are being denied insurance because of pre-existing conditions would like to see their nightmare come to an end. The consequences of your “No” is the continuation of fear and insecurity for millions and millions of Americans.
As in triage, the goal of reform is to do the greatest good for the greatest number. So I ask you, if not health reform now, when?
What do Bigfoot and Non-Profit Health Insurers Have in Common? | Health Care | Change.org
What do Bigfoot and Non-Profit Health Insurers Have in Common? | Health Care | Change.org.
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