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Senior Citizen Politics
Magic Phrase 'Forget Inflation' Drives Bush Cuts in
Medicare, Medicaid
'Would harm those seniors who depend upon America's
hospitals'
Feb. 8, 2007 President Bush has proposed taking
$101.5 billion out of the budget for Medicare and Medicaid. The secret
for how this might happen is the phrase, "Forget about inflation." At
least that is what he is saying to healthcare providers whose pay he
does not want to increase with inflation, and to the senior citizens
facing Medicare premium increases as their income hits certain levels.
Currently, these levels for higher premiums are set to increase with
inflation, but if the Bush idea prevails, they will be frozen and
increasing numbers of senior will fall over the edge as inflation pushes
their incomes higher. KaiserNetwork.org picked up the details on
Tuesday.
 Most of Medicare and Medicaid Savings in Bush's FY
2008 Budget Proposal Come From Reducing Growth in Medicare Provider
Payments
The "lion's share" of the Medicare and Medicaid
savings over five years proposed in President Bush's fiscal year 2008
budget proposal comes from limits on annual inflation adjustments for
reimbursements to hospitals, nursing homes and other health care
providers for Medicare, amounting to $39.5 billion,
CQ HealthBeat
reports (Reichard [1], CQ HealthBeat, 2/5).
The total five year savings for the two programs
under Bush's budget is about $101.5 billion (Kaiser
Daily Health Policy Report, 2/5). The budget proposal would
reduce Medicare reimbursements to providers by 0.65% in FY 2008.
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Bush Budget Chops $101.5 Billion from Medicare,
Medicaid
Budget savings from higher premiums for some seniors,
revised regulations
Feb. 5, 2007 - President Bush on Monday released a
$2.8 trillion fiscal year 2008 budget proposal that includes $101.5
billion in savings from Medicare and Medicaid over five years, the
New York Times
reports. The budget includes more than $78.6 billion in Medicare and
Medicaid savings, and, according to the New York Times, it also includes
revisions to federal regulations for an additional $22.9 billion in
savings from the two programs.
Read more...
Higher Income Seniors to Pay More for Medicare Drug
Plans in New Budget
Higher premiums based on income began this year for
Part B
Feb
4, 2007 Higher income senior citizens will pay higher premiums in
Medicare's drug program next year, if a budget proposal by President
Bush is approved. It was reported last week that President Bush will
propose reducing $70 billion from Medicare and Medicaid in his new
budget to be released Monday. The New York Times reports today that one
part of the Bush plan is to impose a surcharge on premiums for
Medicares prescription drug benefit, as he did this year for those in
Medicare Part B.
Read more...
Read more
on
Politics for Senior Citizens |
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In addition, the budget proposal would end a
practice under which Medicare reimburses providers when beneficiaries
fail to pay their bills.
The budget proposal also would automatically reduce
reimbursements by 0.4% when Medicare general revenue exceeds 45% of the
total cost of the program and would reduce reimbursements to providers
that fail to submit price and quality data after 2008.
Under the budget proposal, Medicare reimbursements
to hospitals would decrease by about $30 billion over five years,
according to industry analysts (Zhang, Wall Street Journal, 2/6).
In addition to the $76 billion in Medicare savings
over five years from legislative changes, the budget proposal includes
$10.2 billion in savings from administrative changes to improve
"efficiency, productivity and program integrity,"
HHS said
(Reichard [1], CQ HealthBeat, 2/5). The budget proposal would "eliminate
annual indexing on income thresholds" to require a larger number of
higher-income Medicare beneficiaries to pay increased premiums in future
years.
Currently, individual Medicare beneficiaries with
annual incomes that exceed $80,000 and married couples with annual
incomes that exceed $160,000 pay increased premiums. In addition, the
proposal would implement a premium based on income in the Medicare
prescription drug benefit (Kaiser
Daily Health Policy Report, 2/5).
The annual growth rate of Medicare would decrease
to 5.6% from 6.5% within five years under the budget proposal, HHS
Secretary Mike Leavitt said (Zhang, Wall Street Journal, 2/6).
Medicaid, SCHIP
The budget proposal includes about $26 billion in Medicaid savings --
$13 billion from legislative changes and $12.7 billion from
administrative changes -- over five years.
According to CQ HealthBeat, the budget proposal
would reduce Medicaid reimbursements for administrative costs and
pharmacies and make "it hard for owners of more valuable homes to
qualify" for the program, CQ HealthBeat reports (Reichard [1], CQ
HealthBeat, 2/5).
The budget proposal would limit Medicaid matching
rates for administrative costs to 50% (Zhang, Wall Street Journal, 2/6).
In addition, the budget proposal would reduce Medicaid reimbursements to
government providers for savings of $5 billion, eliminate certain
reimbursements for school-based services for savings of $3.6 billion,
revise coverage of rehabilitation services for savings of $2.2 billion
and eliminate reimbursements for graduate medical education for savings
of $1.8 billion (Reichard [1], CQ HealthBeat, 2/5).
Under the budget proposal, the annual growth rate
of Medicaid would decrease from 7.3% to 7.1% over five years (Zhang,
Wall Street Journal, 2/6).
The budget proposal includes a $5 billion increase
in funds for SCHIP over five years -- "far short of the $12 billion or
more that experts say is needed to keep covering the 6 million children
now in the program," the Washington Post reports (Lee,
Washington Post,
2/6).
The budget proposal would limit SCHIP eligibility
to children in families with annual incomes less than 200% of the
federal poverty level, or about $38,000 for a family of four (Gay
Stolberg,
New York Times,
2/6). At least 17 states have expanded SCHIP eligibility to children in
families with annual incomes less than 350% of the poverty level
(Solomon, Wall Street Journal, 2/6).
Other Health Proposals
The budget proposal would increase funds for
FDA by
$100 million, which would include "the first user fee for the generic
drug industry as well as a big boost in fees paid by brand-name
pharmaceutical companies," the
Newark Star-Ledger
reports.
The $2.1 billion FDA budget includes almost $444
million in user fees from industries regulated by the agency, with $15.7
million in fees from generic pharmaceutical companies. In addition, the
FDA budget for prescription drug safety oversight would increase by
$11.2 million, and the agency budget for medical device safety oversight
would increase by $7.2 million (Cohen, Newark Star-Ledger, 2/6).
The FDA budget also includes $10.6 million to fund
food safety oversight, "including the development of better methods to
detect and find the source of foodborne illness outbreaks," Dow Jones
reports (Corbett Dooren, Dow Jones, 2/5).
The budget proposal would reduce funds for
CDC core
programs -- such as disease control, health information services and
bioterrorism response -- by $500 million to about $6 billion, according
to the
Campaign for Public
Health (Nesmith,
Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, 2/6).
The budget proposal includes $1.2 billion to fund
preparations for a flu pandemic, with $870 million to help fund the
development of vaccines, antiviral medications and rapid diagnostic
tests. In addition, the budget proposal includes $4.3 billion in funds
for HHS for bioterrorism preparedness, with $1.1 billion for state and
local governments and hospitals to upgrade their public health emergency
response capabilities.
The budget proposal would provide $5.7 billion for
the
Health Resources
and Services Administration; $3 billion for the
Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration; and 28.7 billion for
NIH
(Reichard [2], CQ HealthBeat, 2/5). The budget proposal would provide
about $2.2 billion for state and local grants and training programs for
emergency first responders (Strohm, CongressDaily, 2/6).
>> The budget is available
online.
Bush Administration Comments
Bush said that the priorities in his budget proposal are "protecting the
homeland and fighting terrorism, keeping the economy strong with low
taxes and keeping spending under control." In addition, he said,
"Congress needs to listen to a budget which says no tax increase, and a
budget, because of fiscal discipline, that can be balanced in five
years" (Taylor, AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 2/6). Leavitt said,
"Restraining Medicare spending is a key factor in ensuring that the
program will be sustainable for future generations" (Lipman,
Cox/Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, 2/6).
Reaction
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said, "His budget hands out
favors for the oil and gas industry, while eroding health coverage for
children and seniors" (Solomon, Wall Street Journal, 2/6). House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that the budget proposal is "more of the
same fiscal irresponsibility and misplaced priorities; it takes our
country in the wrong direction" (Mercer, Media General/Richmond
Times-Dispatch, 2/6).
Senate Finance
Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said, "Congress must do
more to fund" SCHIP than the budget proposal (Washington Post, 2/6).
Baucus added that the committee will "take a thoughtful look at ways to
save money in Medicare and Medicaid without harming the health of
America's elderly and disadvantaged" (Zhang, Wall Street Journal, 2/6).
House Budget
Committee ranking member Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said, "I fully
support the president's goal of balancing the budget -- without raising
taxes -- by supporting continued economic growth and job creation and by
further restraining federal spending" (Dennis/Higa, CQ Today, 2/5).
Federation of
American Hospitals President Chip Kahn said that the budget
proposal "is the wrong budget at the wrong time and would harm those
seniors who depend upon America's hospitals" (Zhang, Wall Street
Journal, 2/6).
American Hospital
Association President Rich Umbdenstock said, "Today's budget
is devastating news for children, seniors and the disabled who depend on
the Medicare and Medicaid programs. They are being unfairly singled out
to carry the burden of achieving a balanced budget" (AP/Philadelphia
Inquirer, 2/6).
AARP CEO
Bill Novelli said that the budget proposal calls for "piecemeal cuts
that threaten to damage critical programs without addressing the
fundamental problems that exist in our entire health care system."
American Medical
Association officials in a statement said that they are
"deeply disappointed" that Bush did not propose to eliminate scheduled
reductions to Medicare physician reimbursements (Lipman, Cox/Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, 2/6).
Medicare Rights
Center President Bob Hayes said, "The president is looking to
save money in all the wrong places." Joe Antos of the
American Enterprise
Institute said, "To the extent we can generate a little bit
more in premiums, it's going to help a little bit. The bigger fix is to
find a way to improve the efficiency of the program" (USA Today, 2/6).
Broadcast Coverage
Several broadcast programs reported on the budget proposal:
>> PBS' "NewsHour
With Jim Lehrer": The segment includes interviews with Rob
Portman, director of the
White House Office
of Management and Budget, and
Senate Budget
Committee Chair Kent Conrad (D-N.D.). In addition, the
segment includes comments from Bush and House Budget Committee Chair
John Spratt (D-S.C.) (Woodruff, "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," PBS, 2/6).
Audio and a transcript of the segment are available
online.
>> PBS' "Nightly
Business Report": The segment includes comments from Portman,
Kahn and Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) (Gharib, "Nightly Business Report,"
PBS, 2/5). A transcript of the segment is available
online.
>> NPR's "All
Things Considered": The segment includes comments from
Portman and Bush (Greene, "All Things Considered," NPR, 2/5). Audio of
the segment is available
online.
"All Things Considered" also included analyses of the budget proposal.
The segment includes comments from Julie Rovner, a health policy
correspondent for NPR (Norris, "All Things Considered," NPR, 2/5). Audio
of the segment is available
online.
In addition, "All Things Considered" included an interview with Stan
Collender, a budget analyst at
Qorvis
Communications (Siegel, "All Things Considered," NPR, 2/5).
Audio of the segment is available
online.
>> NPR's "Morning
Edition": The segment includes comments from Conrad and Sen.
Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) (Naylor, "Morning Edition," NPR, 2/6). Audio of the
segment is available
online.
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