Bush-Cheney Rapidly Privatizing Medicare

We’ve known from the beginning that the Bush Prescription Drug plan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_Prescription_Drug,_Improvement,_and_Modernization_Act was deeply flawed in so many ways, in particular because it’s an attack on Medicare, a solid program that is vital to scores of millions of retirees. But there have been so many attacks on the people of this country (and we’re getting off easy compared to so many elsewhere) that for some of us – even a retiree like me – it’s been hard to focus on the particulars and to realize how successful has been the Bush-Cheney assault.

But every so often comes a reminder or something pops to the surface. And this one came for me in the form of a United Federation of Teachers petition on the subject which I took the trouble to read and was duly shocked to see how much they’ve been able to get away with, in this case by already going a long way to privatizing (i.e., destroying) the program.

Note that we can’t blame this one on the Zionists, perhaps the majority of whom are liberals. It’s a good example of how successful Bush-Cheney have been in using the various pressure groups for their own purposes of destruction. --RB

From the
United Federation of Teachers Petition on Medicare

Government health programs such as Medicare have faced substantial cuts while private for profit plans such as Medicare Part C (Medicare Advantage) are estimated to gain $54 billion in subsidies over five years.

The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 was designed to have an automatic triggering mechanism which will initiate a process calculated to provide a large reduction in Medicare Part B as early as 2009.

Medicare Advantage is a disadvantage to Medicare beneficiaries. The overpayment to private for profit plans increases Part B premiums for all Medicare beneficiaries. 81 % of Medicare beneficiaries are paying to subsidize 19% of those in private for profit plans.

Insurance industries' profits have greatly increased because the subsidies they receive are not completely passed along to their beneficiaries. Private for profit plans $ are subject to few public reporting requirements.

The President has shown his hostility to government health programs as exemplified by his veto to the S-CHIP program (Children's Health Program) and by his insistence that the Federal government can not afford to continue supporting Medicare.

We are demanding that the playing field be made level by equalizing payments between the traditional plan, Part B (Medicare) and the private for profit plans within Medicare Part C.