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| A WEEKLY E-ZINE BY FRANK KAISER FOR EVERYONE OVER | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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How Washington Solved the "Medicare Problem" |
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by Frank Kaiser
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Let's give this Administration credit. It's "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" They let nothing stand in their way.
Having inherited a $236 billion budget surplus in 2001, the Administration gave the wealthiest Americans a trillion dollars in "tax relief." Why? "To keep jobs healthy and the economy strong." Three huge tax cuts later, with 3 million private-sector jobs lost and a $521 billion estimated budget deficit for 2004 (not including our costs for rebuilding Iraq), this Administration insists that we must continue cutting taxes for the rich "to keep jobs healthy and the economy strong." That's perseverance, something we Americans admire. But many Americans remained skeptical, especially after popular stocks like Enron fell from $90 to 57¢ a share. We asked, "Why fix what ain't broke?" So this White House did what it does best. It created fear, then invited us in under its cozy umbrella of protection. After 9-11, most of us accepted that we needed a stern and unswerving father figure. If our safety depended on our accepting a little less liberty, a bit of Constitutional bending, a war without end, and a society encouraged to fear minorities, ignore the poor, and idolize the rich, so be it. It came as no surprise on Tuesday when Treasury Secretary John Snow pushed the now well-worn White House fear button announcing that Medicare's financial condition has "deteriorated sharply." The hospital trust fund will be broke seven years earlier than previously forecast. With those job losses and the lower wages of most of the rest of us, payroll taxes took a dive. Snow's report stated that over the next 75 years — this guy's foresight is phenomenal — Medicare will have an unfunded liability of $27.7 trillion*. Staggering! Where's that umbrella? Poof! No Medicare Problem. Lucky for us, the Bush Administration is steady at the helm. Father knows best. The Medicare bill the president signed last December will privatize the program, put the HMOs in charge, thus encouraging personal savings, always a good thing. Without Medicare, there's no Medicare problem. It's sheer genius. And HMOs will negotiate prices with the drug companies, something the Republicans made illegal to Medicare administrators. Still, I have some nagging doubts. Forgive me, but how is it possible, I wonder, for HMOs to be more efficient than Medicare with our medical dollars when HMOs spend between 15 to 32 cents of every dollar on overhead while Medicare spends but a penny? Medicare must have some real losers working for it! I suppose that's why the Republicans wouldn't allow the agency to negotiate drug prices. Dummies like that might negotiate up instead of down. I'm also curious about when the HMOs will turn benign? Every HMO I've been with has either raised its premiums so high I couldn't afford them anymore, or, under Medicare, they've simply kicked me out in the cold. WellCare, UnitedHealthcare, Humana — I've been booted from them all. Forgive my nagging doubts now that they ask me again to put my health in their hands, their pockets full of newly minted Medicare dollars. I know that it's unpatriotic to question Washington's leadership. But you've got to ask: With wages skidding, job losses mounting, deficits climbing, and no Medicare or Social Security, what will this great country be like when our children reach our age? What kind of umbrella will they have to keep those torpedoes away? Want to comment on this week's Suddenly Senior column? Click frank@suddenlysenior.com READ WHAT OTHER READERS SAY ABOUT RECENT SUDDENLY SENIOR COLUMNS AT http://www.suddenlysenior.com/pans.html
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See a list and summaries of all recent Suddenly Senior columns. Click http://www.suddenlysenior.com/columnlist.html PLANNING TO TRAVEL? SEE NEW HINTS AND TIPS THAT CAN SAVE YOU BOTH MONEY AND TROUBLE AT SUDDENLY SENIOR'S TRAVEL PAGE THE BEST OF SENIOR SEX SEE THE BEST SENIOR NOSTALGIA ANYWHERE, http://www.suddenlysenior.com/nostalgiapage.html SEE THE BEST SENIOR TRIVIA ANYWHERE, http://www.suddenlysenior.com/triviapage.html Want to get "Monday's Best Jokes" e-mailed every week? Send blank e-mail to get-jokes@suddenlysenior.com To get the Suddenly Senior column, absolutely free, send blank e-mail to Get-ss@suddenlysenior.com NEW! Get the latest Medicare and Canadian drug store news e-mailed almost every day, send blank e-mail to Get-rxnews@suddenlysenior.com To unsubscribe to the Suddenly Senior column, send a blank e-mail to Remove-ss@suddenlysenior.com To unsubscribe to "Monday's Best Jokes, send a blank e-mail to Remove-jokes@suddenlysenior.com See past "Best Jokes of the Week." Millions of laughs! Read last week's column MEDICARE'S DISCOUNT CARDS Finally, the truth about the much touted Medicare Discount Drug Cards. Could Congress even make a bill that more thoroughly screws seniors while it further enriches drug companies and HMOs? CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY |
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