The $11 Million Picture

Despite the $11 Million poured into the proponents of the Medicare Drug Bill and the corruption of the AARP leadership (who sell their own insurance and drug plans), opposition is swiftly mounting for the bill.

Just like every bill that the GOP controlled House and Senate passes, corporate tax-break pork oozes out. More than a quarter of the money in the 10-year, $400 billion Medicare prescription drug bill that Congress is debating this week would go to employers, private insurers and health care providers.

The bill, which would be the biggest expansion of Medicare in 38 years, contains more than $100 billion in enticements for corporations, insurance companies and protects drug companies who were afraid that the legislation would drive down the price of drugs - and their profits.

Angry and wet, AARP members try to burn cards

Members of the AARP, the influential lobbying group for the elderly, tried in vain to burn their membership cards on Wednesday to protest against the group's endorsement of the Republican Medicare bill.

A few dozen people in their 50s and 60s gathered in the rain outside the AARP's headquarters in downtown Washington and tried to burn their cards, but cut them up instead when the plastic coating would not catch fire.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California at a rally accused the AARP of being in the "pocket" of the Republican leadership. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, demanded that the organization "come clean" if it has a financial stake in the legislation.

A few Democratic lawmakers, while not joining the rain-soaked seniors' protest, said they were also resigning from the AARP. "I destroyed my card," said Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat.

"I cannot in good conscience continue as a member of an organization that ignores the will and best interest of its own membership," Rep. Lois Capps, a California Democrat and former school nurse, wrote in a letter resigning from the group.

Other seniors groups, smaller and less influential than the AARP, have banded together with some consumer and labor groups to try to build opposition to the bill.

A poll commissioned for the AFL-CIO, which opposes the Medicare bill, found that only 19 percent of registered voters at 55 and above supported the Medicare bill. For AARP members, who represented 57 of the poll's 604 respondents, the figure was slightly lower, 18 percent.


Major Provisions of Medicare Legislation are out.

Beginning in 2006, Medicare beneficiaries could sign up for a stand-alone drug plan or join a private health plan that offers drug coverage. They would be charged a premium of $35 per month, or $420 per year. After meeting a $275 deductible, insurance would pay 75 percent of drug costs up to $2,200.

Coverage gap:

No coverage for drug costs between $2,200 and $3,600 out of pocket.

Catastrophic coverage:

When out-of-pocket spending reaches $3,600, insurance covers 95 percent of drug costs or requires a modest co-payment.

Low-income subsidies:

The premium, deductible and coverage gap would be waived for people earning up to $12,123 a year. To qualify for the subsidy, seniors could have no more than $6,000 in fluid assets. The subsidies would be phased out between $12,123 and roughly $13,500 in yearly income.

Retiree coverage:

Would provide tax-free subsidies, perhaps worth as much as $70 billion, to employers who maintain drug coverage for retirees once Medicare drug benefit begins in 2006.

OTHER CHANGES:

Doctor and other out-of-hospital coverage (Medicare Part B):

Premium:

By law, Medicare beneficiaries pay 25 percent of the Part B premium and the government pays the rest. Individuals with incomes greater than $80,000 would pay a larger premium. The size of their premium would increase on a sliding scale, topping out at 80 percent for people with incomes over $200,000.

Deductible:

Would rise from $100 to $110 in 2005 and thereafter be indexed to the growth in Part B spending.

Role of private companies:

Private firms would administer the drug benefit on a regional basis. Would provide $12 billion in subsidies to private insurers that choose to offer basic health insurance. Those include preferred provider organizations (PPOs), which encourage use of certain doctors but allow patients to go elsewhere if they pay extra, and private fee-for-service plans, which allow patients to see any doctor.

Beginning in 2010, traditional Medicare also would face competition from private plans in six metropolitan areas in which at least two private plans enroll at least 25 percent of Medicare beneficiaries. For those who remain in traditional Medicare, premium increases would be capped at 5 percent a year and waived for low-income seniors. The competition would last six years.

The government would provide drug coverage in any region that does not have at least one standalone drug plan and one private health plan.

Rural health:

Would spend about $25 billion to increase payments to rural hospitals and doctors, among others.

Generic drugs:

Would speed generic drugs to the market by limiting ability of pharmaceutical companies to block cheaper equivalents (final details still to be worked out).

Drug importation from Canada:

Would maintain the ban on importing prescription drugs. Would allow such drugs from Canada, but only if Department of Health and Human Services certifies safety, something it has declined to do. Would authorize a study of safety issues.

Doctor and other out-of-hospital coverage (Medicare Part B):

Premium:

By law, Medicare beneficiaries pay 25 percent of the Part B premium and the government pays the rest. Individuals with incomes greater than $80,000 would pay a larger premium. The size of their premium would increase on a sliding scale, topping out at 80 percent for people with incomes over $200,000.

Deductible:

Would rise from $100 to $110 in 2005 and thereafter be indexed to the growth in Part B spending.


BTW - Amount of each US citizen's share of the national debt as of October 21, 2003 = $23,396.