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Senior Citizen Politics
Bush to Raise Medicare Drug Premiums, Cut Medicare
$178 Billion in New Budget
Most cuts from decreases in reimbursements to
physicians, hospitals and other health care providers
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Bush entered
office with "budget surpluses projected to stretch years into
the future," when he leaves office next year, he "will leave
behind a trail of deficits and debt that will sharply constrain
his successor." |
Feb. 1, 2008 Senior citizens seemed to be getting
punched by the Republicans at every turn. This week the Senate
Republicans refused to support a Finance Committee recommendation on the
economic stimulus rebate program, because it included checks to 20
million low-income senior citizens. Now, it is reported that President
Bush will raise the monthly premiums on Medicare drug plans in his
budget on Monday, as well as, cut Medicare spending by $178 billion.
Bush's $3T FY 2009 Budget Would
Freeze Domestic Spending, Seek Nearly $200B in Savings from Federal
Health Programs
President Bush on Monday will release a fiscal year
2009 budget request that will total more than $3 trillion and include a
large reduction in Medicare spending, the Wall Street Journal
reports (McKinnon, Wall Street Journal, 2/1). The budget request
would decrease Medicare spending by $178 billion over five years as part
of a $200 billion reduction in entitlement program spending (Freking,
AP/Houston Chronicle,
1/31).
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Read more
on
Politics for Senior Citizens |
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Under the budget request, most of the reduction in
Medicare spending would result from decreases in reimbursements to
physicians, hospitals and other health care providers, as well as
efforts to reduce payments for services to a level closer to the actual
cost, according to an unnamed White House official (Weisman,
Washington Post, 2/1).
The budget request also would increase monthly
premiums for Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in the prescription drug
benefit (Koffler/Cohn, CongressDaily, 2/1).
The budget request would reduce Medicare spending
growth to 5% from 7.2% currently and would reduce by one-third the
estimated unfunded obligation for the program over 75 years, according
to the Journal (Wall Street Journal, 2/1). The budget
request also would reduce Medicaid spending by $17 billion over five
years (Pelofsky,
Reuters, 1/31).
Other Health Care Programs
The budget request would place a "virtual freeze"
on domestic discretionary spending, the Post reports (Washington
Post, 2/1). An unnamed White House official said that the budget
request would increase domestic discretionary spending by less than 1% (AP/Houston
Chronicle, 1/31). Under the budget request,
HHS discretionary spending would
decrease by $2.2 billion to $68.5 billion.
The budget request would reduce
Health Resources and Services
Administration spending by $1 billion, with a $240 million
reduction in funds for a program that trains nurses and other health
care professionals and a $112 million reduction in funds for rural
health care programs. In addition, the budget request would eliminate
funds for a program that trains physicians at children's hospitals and
funds for public health buildings and other projects.
The budget request also would reduce
CDC spending by $433 million,
with a $111 million reduction in funds for worker safety programs at the
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration and a $83 million reduction in funds for
helping Ground Zero workers. In addition, the budget request would
reduce funds for mental health and substance drug abuse programs by $198
million to $3.2 billion (Wayne, CQ Today, 1/31). The budget
request includes $29.3 billion in funds for
NIH, which would "basically
flat-fund medical research at current-year spending, not enough to keep
pace with inflation," according to CongressDaily (CongressDaily,
2/1). The budget request would increase
FDA spending by $130 million (CQ
Today, 1/31).
Comments
According to
CQ HealthBeat, lawmakers
and "lobbyists are dismissing the possibility that Congress will go
along with massive cuts the Bush administration is planning to propose
in the Medicare and Medicaid programs" (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat,
1/31). Congress last year rejected a request from Bush for a $65 billion
reduction in Medicare spending (Washington Post, 2/1). In
addition, the proposed reduction in Medicare spending "will face heavy
opposition from powerful health care provider groups that could be
affected by the Medicare cuts," CongressDaily reports (CongressDaily,
2/1).
House Ways and Means
Health Subcommittee Chair Pete
Stark (D-Calif.) said that the proposed reductions in Medicare and
Medicaid spending would "endanger the health care of America's seniors,
people with disabilities and low-income children" (Wall Street
Journal, 2/1). He added, "This budget will be dead on arrival" (CQ
HealthBeat, 1/31).
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a
statement said, "The president is proposing to once again slash health
care coverage for seniors and low-income working Americans. The
president's cuts are exactly the wrong medicine when the cost of health
care and the number of uninsured continue to rise and families are
feeling economically insecure" (Washington Post, 2/1).
Senate Finance Committee Chair
Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said that Democrats "will oppose those cuts." He
added, "You have to be frugal, clearly, but those are draconian" (CQ
HealthBeat, 1/31).
Allen Segal, associate director of federal
relations for the
American Cancer Society Cancer Action
Network, said, "For more than a decade we've seen historic
declines in cancer death rates," adding, "The president's budget
threatens to stall that progress by proposing the fifth straight year of
flat funding. We are counting on our champions on Capitol Hill to
repudiate this request by passing a substantial increase in cancer
research" for FY 2009 (CQ Today, 1/31).
Steve Speil, vice president for policy at the
Federation of American Hospitals,
said, "From what we hear, the Medicare budget would subsidize health
plan profits and slash hospital payments," adding, "Someone should ask
seniors what they think about this."
Alicia Mitchell, a spokesperson for the
American Hospital Association,
said, "The magnitude of the cuts reported are of great concern,
especially for the patients who rely on hospitals every day" (CQ
HealthBeat, 1/21).
Budget Legacy
The Journal on Friday examined how, although
Bush entered office with "budget surpluses projected to stretch years
into the future," when he leaves office next year, he "will leave behind
a trail of deficits and debt that will sharply constrain his successor."
According to the Journal, because Bush has
"failed to work out a deal with Congress to tackle the spiraling cost of
government health and retirement programs," the "ambitions of Mr. Bush's
successor to ... institute universal health care" and other programs
"might have to give way to the reality of soaring costs for Social
Security, the Medicare program for the elderly and the Medicaid program
for the poor" (Phillips/McKinnon, Wall Street Journal, 2/1).
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