As If Privatizing Medicare Wasn't Enough....

[n2doc]

Jonathan CohnApril 26, 2011 | 12:00 am

Discussion of the House Republican budget has focused mostly on the privatization of Medicare, the block-granting of Medicaid, and the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. And that’s appropriate, given the magnitude of the changes and widespread impact they would have. But those proposals are obscuring some other proposed shifts that, in any other context, would be plenty troubling for their own sake. This week I'll highlight five of them. On Monday, I talked about radical changes to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP). Today I return to a health care issue:

By now, virtually everybody has heard about the Medicare voucher scheme that House Republicans want to implement starting in 2022. Instead of getting comprehensive, government-run insurance, seniors would have to enroll in private insurance, using a federal subsidy too skimpy to pay for adequate coverage. According to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, seniors would become responsible for about two-thirds of their personal medical expenses. Many seniors would endure significant hardship as a result.

But that’s not the only Medicare change in the House Republican budget. Under current law, you become eligible for Medicare on the day you turn 65. If the Republicans get their way, you wouldn’t become eligible for the new Medicare voucher until the day you turn 67.

The change would happen gradually, with the eligibility age rising two months every year, starting in 2022. And, in the grand scheme of things, it's not like that many people are between the ages of 65 and 67 anyway. But think for a second about who those people are--and the insurance options they'd have available to them without Medicare.


more
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/87378/5-worst-republican-budget-raising-medicare-eligibility-age

[markpkessinger]

1. I am about to turn 50, and am scared to death about this!

I am turning 50 in a little over three weeks. Just this past November, I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes. I shouldn't have been surprised, as I have two sisters who have the disease also, and my father, as well as several aunts and uncles on both sides of the family also had the disease. I guess I figured that since I always tried to take reasonable care with respect to my diet, have always been fairly active and at 5'11" have never weighed more than 170 lbs., I might be able to avoid my genetic destiny. But sometimes, it all comes down to the luck of the genetic draw. For now, I have been able to get on top of my condition, and have managed to bring my blood/glucose down with some moderate changes to my diet, exercising more intentionally, as well as twice-daily insulin injections. But there are other genetic goodies I need to worry about, too -- coronary artery disease (Dad had quadruple bypass at the age of 57) and multiple sclerosis to mention only two of them. But even if I manage to evade the other risk factors, I will still be living with diabetes, which tends to worsen and get more difficult to manage the longer one has it, and thus there is an ever-increasing likelihood of secondary complications -- many of them quite potentially serious -- arising from it.

So needless to say, I am up in arms about the proposed Medicare vouchers, and am scared to death about what I may be facing some years hence, as my medical needs will undoubtedly increase, but under the voucher plan, the money I will have available to meet those needs will be fixed at an appallingly low level.

Unfortunately, given the record of certain Senate Democrats, and the appalling capitulation by this President to the right wing agenda, I am not at all optimistic that Medicare as we now know it will be preserved. What that means for me, exactly, I don't know. But I can tell you this much: I will not be forced to live like a fucking animal just because I had a less than perfect genetic makeup. If it were to come to that, I would find a way to alleviate my own suffering, if you know what I mean.

[sarcasmo]

2. Canada might be a real option if these douche bags mess with medicare.