Over the next seven weeks, it will be increasingly clear that Medicare is strong, and that Congressman Paul Ryan's plan to end guaranteed health benefits for seniors is the wrong prescription for America.
Starting today, the nearly 50 million Americans receiving health care through Medicare and new enrollees can sign up for 2013 health benefits that -- without Medicare -- they couldn't afford.
President Lyndon Johnson's vision of a more affordable health care system for seniors is becoming more of a reality.
As he once put it, no senior should "be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine" or have to "crush and destroy the savings that they have so carefully put away over a lifetime so that they might enjoy dignity in their later years."
Medicare began in 1966. And now, thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), its health coverage is better than before. Under the ACA, savings from cutting wasteful spending and fraud will extend the solvency of the Medicare trust fund by an additional eight years.
A lot has changed since Medicare went into effect. New technologies have developed that keep Americans healthier and help them live longer. Medicine has changed. But one thing hasn't: seniors need affordable care. In fact, the rising cost of health care today means seniors need Medicare's protection more than ever.
From today until December 7, during a period called Open Enrollment, Americans 65 and older, those with disabilities and some with diseases, can choose new coverage options or update old plan choices for 2013.
They can learn about new health benefits, increased discounts on prescription drugs and access new tools to navigate a wider selection of high quality options. All are available at www.medicare.gov.
The health care law phases out the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap known as the "donut hole," for example. In 2013, Medicare recipients who reach it will get approximately 53 percent off brand-name drugs and a 21 percent discount on generic drugs -- an improvement from 50 percent off brand names and 14 percent off generics this year.
For a beneficiary with urgent health needs, these savings are significant.
Nevada seniors in the "donut hole," for example, saved over $26 million on prescription drugs costs under health care reform. Next year, seniors across the country in the "donut hole" are projected to save over $720 on their drug costs.
Beneficiaries who want to switch coverage plans can mix and match options. If they want to quickly pinpoint the highest quality plans, Medicare offers 21 more "four or five-star" Advantage plans this year than last, and 13 more "four or five star" prescription drug plans. The star rating system for Medicare Advantage plans, a program that helps seniors asses the quality of private insurance providers, began under the Affordable Care Act.
Keeping quality health care affordable was one of our top goals in writing the Affordable Care Act in Congress. Since it passed in 2010, Medicare Advantage premiums have fallen by 10 percent and enrollment has increased by 28 percent.
Yet despite these benefits, Medicare is under siege.
Congressman Paul Ryan has a budget proposal that would replace guaranteed Medicare benefits with a voucher.
His plan would trade away the health and safety of today's seniors for tax breaks for billionaires, oil companies and corporations that ship jobs overseas.
Turning Medicare into a voucher program, as Congressman Ryan proposes, would increase premiums for most seniors, according to a nonpartisan study released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation. By 2022, the Congressional Budget Office estimates his plan would cost seniors an extra $6,400, on average, for health care.
If Congressman Ryan truly wants to reduce health care spending, he should look no further than the Affordable Care Act. I will never stop fighting to preserve this successful program. I'm proud that Medicare is stronger today than in the past. And as long as I am in the Senate, I will oppose Republican plans to weaken or undermine it.
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This comment has not yet been postedHalving insurance profits, CEO salaries and doctor pay won't solve the problem. BTW, don't forget RN's, they are very well paid in the US. Besides, despite the rhetoric, CMS(Medicare and Medicaid) have strained but necessary partnerships with the private sector. For example, drug costs will never be controlled without a closed formulary, and at present private insurance administers most of those. Yes, "administrative costs" that Medicare needs but doesn't pay. That will limit drug choices and they already do it in other countries.
The current political offerings BOTH intend to shift costs to seniors, Vouchers by forcing seniors to buy supplements for more services, ACA by forcing the cost of Medicare Advantage supplements up. Medicare Advantage is similar to vouchers BTW, Medicare pays a fixed price to insurance companies who compete to offer supplements at the right price point for service.
You can't.
Teapubs want to kill ACA and "replace" it with nothing worthy of thought much less benefit.
Teapubs are the angels for corporate profit and the Freddy Krugers to social programs that help people.
Thanks to this article and the many individuals and groups that help this program progress. It's no doubt that the next generation will have to re-tool and create their own systems for the health and welfare of our future citizenry. We certainly have the intellect and the knowledge to do it. For today, we have this program which helps sustain a very important part of our lives today.
With implementation of new laws and increased tracking and conviction of fraudulent activities this will certainly add to the quality of the program. There is also assurity that, as we move forward there will be tweaks throughout the whole of the Affordable Care Act and increased management tools to assist to making Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and included programs better and bring to the current and future citizens of this great country to feel even if just a little better for this important part of their future.
Capitalism is supposed to work by competition forcing down prices. This is not working in America because corporations buy up each other until just few dominate and rule like monopolies where they have tacit agreements to keep profit margins fat.
Once implemented, the ACA will put pressure on the insurance companies to compete on price, instead of using "death panels" as they currently do to deny coverage to people.
The Constitution does not guarantee a fat profit to corporations. Insurance companies are some of the most profitable corporations and yet they don't add any value to the product! They're parasites which suck a big fat margin of profit off the top. If the ACA doesn't push them toward competing on price as a mechanism in capitalism, then I say kick em out and have a single payer system which just about every other country has and which is working in just about every other country.
There's a reason Health Insurance Companies donate so heavily to Republican candidates. Think about it.
The truth from the house oversight committee
Obamacare's hidden Medicare advantage cuts
http://oversight.house.gov/release/video-obamacares-hidden-medicare-advantage-cuts/