Will healthcare overhaul cut Benefits to Medicare Recipients? -
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Source: Associate Press
WHEATON, Md. — President Barack Obama recently sought to sell the health overhaul law to skeptical seniors, launching a defense of his presidency's biggest accomplishment as the election season gets under way and the Gulf oil spill dominates news. *
With crucial midterm elections coming soon, the administration is determined to put the law's benefits front and center in hopes of winning over public opinion for the new system and generating confidence in leadership by Obama and his Democratic allies controlling Congress.
Tuesday's event was timed to coincide with the release later this week of the first batch of $250 checks to seniors who fall into Medicare's prescription drug coverage gap, known as the "doughnut hole." Some 4 million elderly and disabled people will get checks this year, a down payment on the law's approach to closing the doughnut hole entirely over the next decade.
A question from a listener in Illinois wanted to know whether participants in the private insurance plans in Medicare, called Medicare Advantage, would lose benefits. *
The answer is yes, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But Obama didn't come out and say it, explaining instead that Medicare Advantage plans are overpaid and subsidized by the majority of seniors who are on regular Medicare, something that's also true. *
It’s sort of like predicting the rain. We know for sure it will rain, but no one can tell us how much and where. Keep in mind these cuts would most likely not effect Medigap insurance sold by private insurers.
"What you need to know is that the guaranteed Medicare benefits that you've earned will not change," the president said. *
This is hard to swallow as we know the the congressional budget office wants to cut billions from Medicare reimbursement to the agencies that provide Medicare Advantage plans.
The Medicare rebate checks will be the first tangible benefits most recipients will be seeing from the law Obama signed in March, and the first batch of 80,000 is supposed to go out Thursday. The checks are going to reimburse seniors for money spent on prescription drugs. Seniors who fall into the "doughnut hole" gap are responsible for $3,610 in drug costs in 2010 before their Medicare coverage kicks in again. *
Obama also announced new measures to halve waste, fraud and abuse in the program by the end of 2012. This may be much harder to implement than previously thought.
An Associated Press-GfK poll conducted after the law was signed found 49 percent of seniors were strongly opposed to healthcare reform, compared to 37 percent of those 64 and younger. Republicans have been quick to highlight those concerns.
"Seniors are right to be skeptical. They were told this law would strengthen Medicare, when in fact it takes a half-trillion dollars out of Medicare to fund a new government program," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. *
* By ERICA WERNER and JULIE PACE
Associated Press Writers