Snapped Shot

Medicare recipients could see higher premiums for prescription drug coverage as a result of changes to complex provisions in a Senate health care bill, a senior Republican said Friday.

At issue are marching orders for a powerful new commission that would recommend annual Medicare savings to Congress. Those recommendations would go into effect unless overruled by lawmakers.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said an amendment approved by the Finance Committee in the pre-dawn hours Friday would allow the commission to recommend changes leading to higher Medicare prescription drug premiums. The Democratic amendment was approved on a 13-10 party line vote.
...
As the prescription benefit is designed now, taxpayers cover three-fourths of the cost of the benefit, while Medicare recipients pay the remaining 25 percent.

The amendment would allow the new Medicare commission to recommend "reductions in federal premium subsidies" to the private insurance plans that deliver the prescription drug benefit. Grassley's office said the "premium subsidies" are taxpayers' share of the cost of the prescription plan. If those are reduced, the plans will make up the difference by raising premiums for seniors.

Ok. Your first take you are probably getting a little upset to learn that it will be possible that Medicare recipients (read your parents and grandparents) might be forced to pay higher premiums if Obama gets his free and no-charge-to-non-rich-people health care bill.

Remember, Obama said that he will not raise taxes on middle income people earning less than $500,000 $250,000 $150,000 $100,000 in income. You can rest assured on that - after you placed it in the bank - to earn maximum interest from that government bank - prior to its closing - and being repaid by the bankrupt FDIC. cheers!

We already know that our taxes will not go up due to the TRILLIONS in increased budgetary expenses that have been promised over the next few years. We know that our fees and taxes will not be increased as we increase the number of people on the government handout who do NOT pay taxes, let alone are not citizens of this great Socialist nation.

Ok. Ok. Settle down. This isn't the scary part. Far from it.

Now, read this part a second time.

At issue are marching orders for a powerful new commission that would recommend annual Medicare savings to Congress. Those recommendations would go into effect unless overruled by lawmakers.

Did you read that right? "a powerful new commission" will be created independent of whether a "public" option is included in the final ObamaCare vote or not. This loosely regulated commission will be charged with reducing taxpayer's costs for Medicare. Like the article states, the only way to do that is to increase the other side of the see-saw. As one side goes down, the other side MUST go up.

But you say, they can stay the same or both go down as the strut supports are lowered. True. But remember, you are increasing the number of people that will be riding ON that see-saw. Therefore you will have to increase the size, length and strength of that see-saw's struts. In your case then, both sides of that see-saw are raised up higher.

If you increase the number of people that will be sucking on the government teet, then you have to pay to have more teets. And milk cows are not cheap.

Ok, have I lost ya yet?

Ok, now for my third point. ( I promise no more farm or playground analogies )

This bill will create an unelected commission that will make decisions on their own on how Medicare will operate, what drugs and procedures will be covered and the expenses that will be reimbursed.

Shades of the "death panel" theory?

Why create an unelected, unaccountable commission to do exactly what the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services already does?

But why let efficiency stop good intentions?

Remember. This commission is an unelected group that is unaccountable to the people they are managing and dictating services to.

Seriously. How does this not speak of the future of ObamaCare when that version of that bill already had language that created its own similar commission as well?

Government: There to protect you. (and let you speak your mind in a public forum)


[Update] More from that article:

Grassley said the Democratic amendment was geared to compensate for a deal that would exempt hospitals from the commission's cost cutting scalpel.

The hospitals have already agreed to forego $155 billion in Medicare and Medicaid payments over the next ten years to help pay for the health care overhaul.

So, hospitals will just give away free Medicare treatment of $15.5 billion dollars per year? Hmmm. Guess hospitals are not going as broke as we thought.

Tethered to the dialysis machine behind her reclining chair by two tubes attached to a catheter in her chest, Marta Berrera wearily stares at nothing in particular as blood flows out of, and then back into, her body.

Every four or five days, she shows up at University Medical Center's emergency room, her failing kidneys requiring that her waste be filtered and excess fluid be removed through artificial means.

"I am so thankful to this hospital for doing this for someone who is not a citizen," she said Thursday, an interpreter translating her Spanish...

March 26, 2008 – As many have long known, Medicare is under a great deal more financial stress than the Social Security program, and this was confirmed yesterday by the annual report of the Medicare Trustees that says Medicare’s Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund will become insolvent slightly earlier in 2019 than reported last year.