Can health care reform help Medicare?

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By SAUL FRIEDMAN
http://www.newsday.com/business/can-health-care-reform-help-medicare-1.1514316

We haven't really explored one of the lingering issues emerging from the more civil discussions on the several bills before Congress to reform the American system of health insurance: Will it be good for the 45 million Americans on Medicare?

We've discussed the possibility that the Congress will eliminate the special subsidies for Medicare Advantage insurers, which could raise the cost of these policies. This could strengthen traditional Medicare and hold Part B premiums down.

However, the cynics who have sought the death of Medicare now have the chutzpah to protest these cuts as a threat to Medicare. But Dr. Howard Dean points out that those $176 billion in subsidies will be saved for the beneficiaries of Medicare and the reforms.

More important, this may be the beginning of the end of efforts to privatize Medicare that these cynics pushed.

(snip)
The Center for Medicare Advocacy (http://medicareadvocacy.org/) is more explicit. Its newsletter says, "Eliminating these subsidies will end cost-shifting from private plans to the larger Medicare program and will put the traditional program back on a 'level playing field' with the private plans. It should also help reduce the increases in Part B premiums . . . "