[Vision2020] Warning to the GOP: Don't Mess with Medicare

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Greetings:

This was my radio commentary for KRFP this morning.  It will also go to the Idaho State Journal, the Los Cabos Daily News, and the Sandpoint Reader.

Why didn't McCain have courage enough to come to the vote?

Nick Gier

WARNING TO THE GOP: DON'T MESS WITH MEDICARE

Some Republican Senators were running scared for the July 9th Senate vote reversing cuts to Medicare.  On June 26th the Democrats did not the get the 60 votes necessary to stop a filibuster, so Senator Ted Kennedy left his sickbed for the second vote.  

As it turned out, the heat applied to the Republicans made Kennedy's presence unnecessary.  A total of nine GOP senators switched their votes to provide a 69-30 veto-proof majority.  On July 15 the House and Senate overrode President Bush's veto by votes of 383-41 and 70-26 respectively. 

John McCain was the only senator missing for the July 9th vote. His campaign had no comment about why he was not there, but McCain has said that he opposes the bill. Barack Obama voted for the resolution on June 26th and July 9th.

Mad as a hornet about the proposed 10.6 percent decrease in payments, the American Medical Association bought ads and targeted 10 Republican senators in 6 states. The AMA's current support for Medicare is ironic because it lobbied strongly against the original bill when it passed in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program.  

Former President Harry Truman was the very first person to join Medicare. In 1945 he hoped that he could persuade Congress to adopt a single payer plan of the sort being developed in Europe at the time. The hobgoblin of socialism sank the idea. The U.S. now ranks last among industrialized countries in terms of access, efficiency, equity, preventable deaths, and healthy lives.

Even with its various problems Medicare has served America's seniors very well.  Medicare's administrative costs, estimated at 2-6 percent, are much lower than the 17-30 percent variously calculated for private companies.  

Medical Advantage plans, private policies designed to substitute for Medicare, are expected to cost taxpayers $149 billion over the next 10 years.  While ordinary claims are being underpaid, Medicare Advantage doctors are being overpaid 13 percent.  Touted by Republicans as a less expensive free market alternative to Medicare, these plans have not managed care nor have they reduced costs.

Supporters of Medicare Advantage claim that 95 percent of the 9 million people who opted out of Medicare like their new coverage. With billions of dollars in subsidies, they have cherry picked younger and healthier clients and offered them Cadillac programs. It is no wonder that these policies are highly praised, but their success has come at the neglect of ordinary Medicare recipients.

Much to the distress of GOP free marketeers, but to the satisfaction of those who believe in a level playing field, the current bill takes funds from the failing Medicare Advantage programs, eliminates the 10.6 percent cut, and adds one percent to doctor payments.

This bill is still not enough to solve the problem of Medicare costs and access.  The number of doctors who limit the number of Medicare patients has now risen to 25 percent. The AMA estimates, if the current bill had failed, that the percentage would have risen to 60 percent.

The medical association of Santa Cruz County has announced that its doctors will accept no more Medicare patients.  Nine California counties have the lowest Medicare reimbursement rates in the country, while other California counties have the highest.  

Once again in America, the wealthiest nation in the world, the poor suffer both medically and educationally because of pockets of privilege and the highest level of economic inequity in the industrialized world.

When Ted Kennedy came back to the Senate on July 9th, he vowed that he would not allow Medicare to be destroyed.  During his first term representing Massachusetts, he voted for the original legislation in 1965.  

In a speech to the National Press Club in January of 2005 on the 40th Anniversary of Medicare, Kennedy declared: "It's no secret that America is still dearly in love with Medicare. Administrative costs are low, patient satisfaction is high, and unlike with many private insurers, they can still choose their doctor and their hospital."

At that time Kennedy introduced the concept of Medicare for All, which would start by including those 55-65 and all young children, and gradually phase in all other uninsured Americans. Funding would come from increased payroll taxes, savings due to Medicare's efficiencies, as well as reforms "based on value and results, not just the number of procedures performed or days in a hospital bed."