Seniors who paid into Medicare see benefits slashed to pay for those who haven’t con

[Wehrwolfen]

Doug Ross:
3 Mar 13

Conservatives have warned of this scenario since the cluster known as Obamacare was rammed through Congress in 2010. For a demagogue who continually hectors Americans about “fairness”, it is indeed ironic that those who paid into Medicare are having their benefits slashed in order to subsidize those who’ve contributed nothing. We call that unfair.


[It loves to talk about the Sequester, but] the Obama administration doesn’t want to talk about its own devastating cuts in Medicare. On Friday, February 15, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced $716 billion in cuts over the next ten years. Instead of being put toward the debt, most of the money will go toward a new entitlement: Obamacare’s vast expansion of coverage for the uninsured.

Where Obama is cutting is telling. At least half of the savings will come out of Medicare Advantage, under which a full 28 percent of seniors buy privately managed health insurance that often includes added benefits such as vision and dental care or chronic-illness management. In exchange, patients agree to stay within a medical network, which helps insurance companies manage their costs. The program is most popular with Hispanics and African Americans. A study by CMS found that 38 percent of Hispanics and 31 percent of African Americans on Medicare were enrolled in Medicare Advantage, compared with 27 percent of whites…

To add cynicism to injury, the Obama administration postponed the Medicare Advantage cuts until after the 2012 election, using a slush fund to tide the program over and conceal the true costs of Obamacare to seniors.

The cuts are so much larger than expected that health-care stocks tanked across the board after they were announced. Managed-care analyst Carl McDonald told clients in an e-mail that Obamacare’s reducing payments to private-plan providers “would turn almost every plan in the industry unprofitable.” The Congressional Budget Office projects that the payment cuts will result in an enrollment drop of 3 million for Medicare Advantage.

Read more
Doug Ross @ Journal: IT'S OFFICIAL: Seniors who paid into Medicare see benefits slashed to pay for those who haven't contributed a nickel

 

[waltky]

Health insurance industry lobbying against major cuts to Medicare payments...

Insurers ready to battle Medicare cuts
3/06/13 - Hoping to block a 2.2% cut in government payments to the Medicare Advantage plans

The health insurance industry is beginning a ferocious lobbying offensive aimed at warding off major cuts to Medicare payments. Insurers are hoping to block a 2.2 percent cut in government payments to the privately administered Medicare plans known as Medicare Advantage. The industry has pulled out all the stops for the campaign, which includes inside-the-Beltway lobbying as well as efforts to put local pressure on lawmakers who hail from states where Medicare Advantage plans are popular.

The latest move from insurers is a new television ad that will begin to run Wednesday in the Washington area before expanding to local markets. “Seniors will pay more, get less and lose choices,” the ad says. The 30-second spot is set to run in New York, Louisiana and Pennsylvania after its D.C. premiere, and some version will appear either on television or online in 12 states the industry has targeted in its lobbying push. “Seniors in Medicare Advantage got hit hard by health reform,” the ad’s narrator states. “The sequester piled on more cuts. Now, the Medicare agency is proposing deep, new payment cuts. It’s too much.”

America’s Health Insurance Plans, the primary trade group for insurance companies, began to push back almost immediately after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) first proposed a 2.2 percent cut in Medicare Advantage payments. In the roughly two weeks since the CMS proposed the payment reduction, AHIP has released a flurry of reports and studies defending Medicare Advantage and making the case that another cut would carry enormous consequences.

Insurance companies are no strangers to the Washington power game — the industry spent millions of dollars advertising against the Affordable Care Act before it passed, and it is still pressing Congress to repeal the law’s tax on insurance plans. But the Medicare Advantage cuts are different, in part because it’s a regulatory change rather than a piece of legislation. That makes it harder to build an energized opposition, while also compressing the timeline for lobbying — the cuts will take effect in about a month unless AHIP builds enough energy to block them. “The challenge is creating that urgency” around a more technical issue, said a source familiar with the lobbying campaign.

Read more: Insurers ready to battle Medicare cuts - The Hill's Healthwatch

See also:

Feds plan pitch to uninsured
3/6/13 - The Obama administration will begin reaching out to people who could get insurance through the health reform law this July, less than three months before they can sign up for new coverage.

“If we get too much of a head start with beneficiaries about what they can expect in 2014, … but say that it’s not available to you for six months or seven months, then folks tend to lose interest,” Marilyn Tavenner, the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, told the Federation of American Hospitals at its Washington conference Tuesday.

Tavenner said the administration will work with the private sector, including hospitals, as well as community and church groups to ensure that people know about the law’s Medicaid expansion and health insurance exchanges. Both will go into effect in January but enrollment begins in October. By then, Tavenner could be the first confirmed leader at CMS in more than seven years. Her nomination has been pending in the Senate for more than two years.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus told POLITICO on Tuesday that he expects Republicans to “eventually” support her nomination. The Montana Democrat met with Tavenner last week, and both characterized it as a positive meeting. Baucus had said in the past that he expected Republicans to block her confirmation because of the health care reform law. Some key Republicans have indicated that they want to hold a hearing, and none have publicly said they would oppose Tavenner’s confirmation.

Read more: Feds plan pitch to uninsured - Jennifer Haberkorn - POLITICO.com

 

[kyzr]

Medicare should only be for those who paid for it. Any charity cases should come out of the Foreign Aid funding or some other option.
Then we hear Kerry whining for millions of foreign aid for Egypt...the fucking Muslim Bro'hood no less. The same guys who hate us and want nothing but violence for the US...yet we're supposed to get less while the Muslim Bro's get our money??? WTF is wrong with this???

 

[AmericanFirst]

Libtards supporting deadbeats and terrorists thugs, usual tacticts.