FDL - Political Forces Lining up to Raise Medicare Retirement Age

[SugarShack]

Political Forces Lining up to Raise Medicare Retirement Age

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/09/09/political-forces-lining-up-to-raise-medicare-retirement-age/

By: Jon Walker Friday September 9, 2011

(pic of Joe Lieberman and Tom Coburn)

The threat to Medicare is very real and pressing. Over the past several months more and more political forces in Washington have being slowly lining up behind a campaign to raise the Medicare eligibility age. This most recent effort really got started when Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) put forward a bill to raise the Medicare retirement age in late May.

It got a major push in July when Obama privately offered it up as part of a “grand bargain” on the debt ceiling with Speaker John Boehner. It probably got another push in Obama’s jobs speech last night when the president suggested he still wants to change Medicare in a way “some in his party” won’t like. The campaign also got a behind-the-scenes boost this week. First, the Democratic members of the House Ways and Means committee included raising the Medicare retirement age in a memo to the Super Committee outlining possible deficit reduction options. But more importantly, the powerful American Hospital Association came out in favor of it.

From Politico:

The American Hospital Association has a strategy for heading off any more Medicare payment cuts: Tell Congress to get the money from Medicare beneficiaries instead. The association is urging its nearly 5,000 members to lobby Congress to raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67, in addition to other money-saving alternatives, according to spokeswoman Marie Watteau. It is no surprise the hospital industry wants to see the change. Raising the Medicare retirement age means old people will be forced to buy overpriced private insurance instead. Private insurance pays hospitals more than Medicare because they lack Medicare’s market power. It is one of the few ways to cut the government’s Medicare spending while increasing profits for the health care industry —

at the expensive of older Americans.

We are seeing a convergence of deficit hysteria, a Democratic president who wants to have a “Nixon goes to China moment” with Medicare and powerful corporate lobbyists in pursuit of bigger profits.
Medicare is in serious danger and so is your wallet. This move will not just hurt those near retirement but would mean higher premiums for everyone on Medicare and millions of with private insurance.

[MannyGoldstein]

1. "Make no mistake: time for old folks to eat their peas

And catfood. "

[SugarShack]

2. Indeed.

[Bluebear]

3. Let me be clear, some in my party may disagree with me

[Bluebear]

18. .

[SugarShack]

4. And don't forget "we can't afford it" (in the richest country on the planet)

The USA has the money...it just not collect it.

[TransitJohn]

5. From "any bill I sign must have a strong public option" to "fuck off senior citizens"

It's beyond sad.

[shanti]

16. his mother in law

i wonder what she thinks of this...

[doc03]

6. We have to make some minor adjustments in the Medicare

program now to save it for future generations or variations of that phrase have been used by various politicians including Paul Ryan and Pres. Obama.

[Bluebear]

7. To hear a Democrat propose it is painful

[tblue]

8. Tar Sands, EPA rules, drilling in the Gulf, drone attacks.

Driving a stake through the heart of the Democratic party by taking away what sets us apart from Republicans.

[Bluebear]

10. +

[woo me with science]

19. Defending corrupt, thieving banks. Leading a bipartisan attack on the poor, elderly and disabled.

It is enraging. We have no representation. They are looting America.

[Tarheel_Dem]

9. Well, I'm glad NorquistDogLake has finally weighed in. Otherwise, we wouldn't have known...

what we were supposed to think. :eyes:

[flamingdem]

11. ... don't tell me

It's hamster time, Jane that is..

Well it would be extremely negative to change the eligibility age. That's why I don't believe that's Obama's direction.
If so, as in that it impacts people born after 1955 a la Ryan plan, well then I'll become a Jane fan.

[eridani]

12. Then why does he keep bringing it up?

[flamingdem]

13. I hate it, but it must be strategic

From what I've read the idea is to take the wind out of the Republicans sails by being realistic / willing to make changes, but that the changes "do not impact benefits". And any age change would be super gradual and related to statistics of a longer lived population. So maybe a 20 year old would be dealing with age 67 for retirement but we'd have health care under control by then..

They cannot be so stupid as to raise the age on anyone within 10-20 years ... if they are I will protest loudly.

[eridani]

14. Except we do not HAVE a markedly longer lived population, and yourg people

--are going to be a lot poorer than we are. The life expectancy of lower income women is now declining.

[flamingdem]

15. I didn't know that. It makes sense

We have to get everyone on Medicare in this country. It will have to happen or the country will go bankrupt. That's why I'm not too concerned long haul. Short haul I'm not so sure. I wonder about the effect of HCR on all of this.

When I realized how much you STILL have to pay on Medicare -- a couple of hundred a month at least -- to have good care I realized that HCR with subsidies is probably a great deal for the poorer among us

[eridani]

17. If Medicaid is gutted, HCR will be half destroyed

It basically has two parts--opening Medicaid to many more people, and subsidizing private insurance for the rest. Given that 80% the health care bankruptcies happen to people WITH insuance, HCR won't help at all. Most will go for the cheapest "bronze" level coverage with high deductibles and only 60% of the bills covered. The 85% who will never get expensively sick won't notice or care, but the other 15% (whence comes most of our actual health care costs) are totally fucked.