PROTECT MEDICARE
Older Americans are under attack in Washington D.C.
The strategy of the current leadership in the U.S. Congress and Bush
Administration is to pit the middle class against the poor. This strategy
provides a smoke screen behind which to suck money from middle class
Americans up the economic pyramid to the wealthiest group living in luxury
at the very top of the pyramid.
Medicare is a major target of this strategy directed to ease the tax burdens
of the rich at the expense of middle class and poorer elderly citizens.
Citizens, young and old, must come to understand that the attack on the health
care programs in place for older Americans has nothing to do with reducing
health care costs, or reducing taxes for the overwhelming majority of
families.
All of these objectives of cost and tax reduction can be achieved by:
- eliminating at least 153 sources of federal business welfare in
current budgets totalling $167.2 billion dollars.
- fixing tax loopholes written by special-interest corporate lobbyist
buddies of committee chairmen such as the one in the mining law allowing
a company to pay $5,190 for the rights to a Nevada gold mine that is
potentially worth $10 billion.
- giving technology subsidies to firms such as Amoco, AT&T, Citicorp,
DuPont, General Electric, General Motors, and IBM which amounted to
hundreds of millions of dollars between 1990 and now. These same seven
firms during this period cut their U.S. job forces by hundreds of thousands
and generated many billions of dollars in profits annually while getting
these "corporate welfare" subsidies.
The balance of this page is devoted to addressing some basic questions about
Medicare, Medicaid, entitlements and human welfare.
Medicare, Medicaid, Entitlements, & Human Welfare
(Click on Highlighted Question to Access the Answer Below)
For Medicare beneficiaries, new costs would come on top of the high
health care costs they already pay. Currently, the average beneficiary in
Oregon will spend several thousand dollars out-of-pocket to cover Medicare premiums,
deductibles, coinsurance and the cost of services not covered by Medicare
(like prescription drugs and preventive care). This does not include the
enormous cost of nursing home care which averages over $40,000 a year.
Median household income for older Americans is roughly $17,000 per year,
half that of the non-elderly. Yet over 30 percent of the average older
American's income is spent on health care.
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Medicare needs to be improved. But, "reform" sponsors are proposing
major and rapid changes in Medicare that could force beneficiaries into
managed care plans like HMOs or give them a voucher to buy private
insurance. Currently, there are only about 30%, of
Medicare beneficiaries in Oregon enrolled in Medicare managed care.
Many Members of Congress who support cutting almost $300 billion out of
Medicare also say that it will be a person's choice whether he/she wants
to keep her/his own doctor, but to keep that choice she/he will have to
pay a lot more.
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To achieve the proposed billions in Medicare spending reductions,
beneficiaries in Oregon could be faced with:
- a higher Medicare Part B premiums.
- a new 20 percent home health coinsurance.
Nationwide, approximately 80 percent of home health users have incomes
below $15,000. The majority are single, older women.
- a higher deductible for Part B services; this is in addition to the
Part A hospital deductible which is already more than most elderly are
able to afford.
- a new income related premium for so-called "higher-income" beneficiaries.
- unlimited balance billing so doctors could charge beneficiaries additional
amounts over and above Medicare payments.
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Low-income older Americans would be hardest hit by the increased
out-of-pocket costs, particularly if the Medicaid program becomes a
block grant to states. According to the most recent year of data available,
there were approximately 38,000 seniors in Oregon below the poverty level.
Lower-income older Americans spend more than 25% of their income on health
care. Currently Medicaid pays for the premiums, deductibles and copays of
Medicare beneficiaries who fall below the poverty line through the Qualified
Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) program. Now Congress is considering
eliminating the QMB program. This would increase low income Medicare
beneficiaries' out -of-pocket health costs even more and jeopardize their
access to even the most basic Medicare services.
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The official definition is this: By meeting certain criteria, such as age,
years of contributions, or income level, you are eligible, or entitled,
to receive certain benefits. Social Security and Medicare are the two
largest entitlement programs. But all entitlements are not the same; they
vary in eligibility requirements, size, funding source, rate of growth, and
financial health. Politicians and pundits tend to lump all entitlement
programs together and talk about them as if they are one program. That's
confusing and misleading. Because when people talk about cutting or capping
entitlements, it's Social Security and Medicare that will be cut the most,
since that's where the money is.
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Medicare, like Social Security, is an earned benefit based on the recipient's
past contributions. If you paid into Medicare during your working life, you
are entitled to collect benefits when you turn 65. Medicaid is based on
current need and benefits are given to people whose income is below a
specified level.
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Basicallly the difference is in what makes you eligible to collect benefits.
You're automatically eligible to collect Social Security and Medicare
benefits when you retire or turn 65, for example, because you earned the
benefits by contributing during your work life. They're not welfare.
Other entitlement programs are based on need, like food stamps and Medicaid.
Eligibility is based on a person's income and assets, not on what has been
paid into the system.
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Estimates on this Web page are based on data from Citizen's Fund, The
Urban Institute, a private insurer, the Health Care Financing
Administration (HCFA), the Center for the Study of Responsive Law,
the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Questions or comments about Medicare, Medicaid, Entitlements, and Welfare
can be directed to:
psu01435@pdx.edu