The time to strengthen Medicare is now -- the question is, will Congress have the courage to do it right?
AARP is fighting for a health care reform plan that will protect the Medicare benefits seniors have earned, eliminate waste and put Medicare on more stable financial ground so current and future generations will have the health coverage they need.
After months of being bombarded by myths about death panels, socialized medicine and rationed care, AARP members are asking legitimate questions about how they would be affected by health reform. While we can't predict what Congress will ultimately do, we can tell our members how we're fighting for their health care.
First, we would fight any proposals to cut Medicare benefits or hike out-of-pocket fees or take away their choice of doctor. We would vigorously oppose provisions that would deny care or interfere with the right of patients and doctors to make medical decisions.
Fortunately, no such proposals are under consideration.
We have not yet endorsed any specific health reform legislation. But in our judgment, a number of proposals on the table could improve Medicare in important ways.
Let's start with the drug benefit. Current proposals would reduce costs and significantly narrow Medicare's doughnut hole -- the fast-growing gap in coverage that can cost individuals thousands of dollars a year. Filling in the gap, even gradually, would help millions of seniors afford their prescriptions.
Seniors also would win with better benefits for prevention. Reform legislation would make such services as screenings for diabetes, osteoporosis and prostate cancer free to beneficiaries. Co-pays currently discourage many from getting these screenings, which can prolong their lives.
Also overlooked in the debate is the proposed reinvestment of Medicare savings to improve doctors' payments in Medicare. These changes would help ensure Medicare patients a choice of doctor, provide bonuses to increase the number of primary care providers, and improve care for people with chronic conditions. Such payment reforms hold real promise of improving access to health care for Medicare patients and making a fragmented medical system work better for them.
Older Americans would benefit further from new efforts to root out waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare. One current fraud case involves an alleged $100 million phony-billing scam in five states. Improved efforts to stop this sort of crime and other abuse can save billions of dollars in Medicare and in out of pocket costs each year.
Medical errors, such as life-threatening infections due to poor care, needless use of costly technologies, and excess industry profits all push up costs and undermine Medicare's financial health.
Let's face it: We need to make sure we save Medicare money, as every member of Congress well knows. But we need to protect benefits while at the same time we target waste - and we now have an opportunity to make smart savings that actually strengthen the program.
Take the problem of unplanned readmissions to the hospital. Follow-up care and guidance to help patients after discharge could lower costs as much as $17 billion a year. Reducing readmissions not only would save money, it would spare elderly patients the anguish of returning to the hospital due to poor follow-up care.
Another hunk of savings could come from gradually reducing the billions of dollars of subsidies the government pays to private insurance companies, known as Medicare Advantage. These subsidies cost the government 14% more per patient than traditional Medicare. Those tax dollars should go to helping seniors, not boosting insurance company profits.
AARP believes private Medicare plans should compete by providing better customer service and better quality care, not relying on subsidies from taxpayers. Whether private insurers would modify their benefit packages if they lose the subsidy is a business decision. Nothing in the legislation would require them to do so. And we will encourage lawmakers to include incentives for plans that deliver the highest quality care.
Holding down the growth in future payment increases to health care providers is another way to save money without reducing benefits. About half of the proposed $500 billion in Medicare savings would come from limiting the growth of reimbursements to providers, such as hospitals, nursing homes and home health agencies. Providers that improve their quality and productivity should be able to offset these curbs.
Much of that $500 billion savings, by the way, would be reinvested in Medicare, and the remainder would help make Medicare more financially stable. The net reduction is 3% in projected Medicare spending over the 10-year period. Done right, it is possible to shave 3% and still have a stronger, more effective, and more health-conscious Medicare program.
Some may expect AARP to reflexively protest any changes to Medicare - a program that provides health security for 45 million Americans. But unless we wring out waste and stop insurance companies from profiting on the backs of seniors, Medicare will be under growing financial pressure to provide older Americans with the health coverage they need. We believe eliminating waste and excess insurance company profits is critical to protecting benefits, preserving doctor choice, holding down premiums, and to preserving a strong Medicare for the long term that ensures both current and future generations will have good health care coverage when they are older.
This message is not easy to convey to the public, especially in the current environment. Civil and thoughtful discussion is needed more than ever, and AARP will do what we can to provide accurate information and encourage informed debate.
We seek a common-sense approach to solving the problems of our health care system, problems that we hear about from members every day.
Done right, smart health reforms are surely in the best interest of Medicare and America's seniors who rely on it.
John Rother is AARP's Executive Vice President for Policy and Strategy.
And the answer is "No". Which is also the follow up to "Will the White House provide leadership?"
And insurance agents like AARP pretending to be advocacy groups are a big part of the problem. Your eager participation in Medicare D is well remembered.
REAL health care reform like Single Payer would save Medicare, Medicaid and the VA. But only a very few people are serious about real health care reform in Washington this go round.
In my area, most of those involved in the teabagger parties were seniors receiving Social Security and Medicare, and they were protesting "government spending". Embarrassing that these idiots are citizens of my country.
AARP has been walking a fine line about reform.
They don't want Public Option.
They are backed by United Health Care....
And they want Medicare to stay the same so that seniors need to pay extra for full coverage...
Never compare Medicare to Single-Payer or Universal Health Care...
Medicare for all would mean that we would have to pay private companies for the coverage that Medicare does not provide.
AARP has been as honest and straight forward as the 'death panels'...........!
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/may/himmelstein_replies_.php
Insurance companies have had 60 years to do business in good faith. But unfortunately, they have failed the American people by raising premiums and canceling policies of those that dare to get an illness. And now that the President wants the Public Option, now these companies say they won't drop people, want people to have affordable premiums, and want everyone to be covered. What a bunch of morons. We see right through them. They see the writing on the wall. The current status quo is slipping through their fingers, and they're scrambling to get things back into their control.
Single-payer is the best option.
As far as the assumption that private insurance companies have failed the people -- the good of the people, their paying customers, never once factored into the equation. To the contrary, private insurance companies have demonstrated outstanding performance by every measure. The problem is, positive medical outcomes, health and wellbeing, ethics, rule of law, decency, humanity are not the yardsticks by which insurance companies measure success. They are only successful if they have managed to screw you out of every dime you've paid on the way to your grave.
Now, I am shocked, SHOCKED to learn that politicians might pander to the voters, but on this issue there is no danger of them doing anything else.
Of course, the big question is how it's going to be paid for, especially as more people are retired and those who have no health insurance now are included in some type of government program. This is why I have always suggested letting the Federal Reserve subsidize the Medicare and Social Security Trust Funds, at least through the Baby Boomer retirement phase over the next 30-40 years.
Too many seniors focus only on themselves when it comes to health care. We're actually doing pretty well. Let's focus on our children and grandchildren and leave them a better health care system than we had until we reached 65. It will help us, too.
This is a truly excellent post. Obama has made a serious mistake by not explaining his plans for Medicare in this way. By just saying that he will cut costs instead of emphasizing actual reform and improvement of Medicare, he has left himself open to the fear factor of seniors, and the Reta rdican s have jumped right in and exploited it.
He should emphasize that Medicare savings will make Medicare better and that seniors will get BE TT ER benefits and exactly how and why that will happen.
Everyone agrees that Medicare has serious problems when it comes to abuse and fraud. This has been going on since day one. Obama should create a Medicare watchdog and enforcement agency that would investigate all the possible abuses and insure that the money is being spent properly. That would be change that everyone could believe in.
We all have - or know of – health care horror stories...things that should not have been allowed to happen.
Well, Our elected officials in Congress receive health care mostly paid for by us tax payers, yet many are trying to make it impossible for us to have an affordable plan of our own :
While many of us are struggling to afford medical insurance/medical bills.
While Congress people try to stop healthcare reform.
While Congress people accept large contributions from lobbyists to prevent health care reform.
Please sign these petitions - and by all means, spread the word! Thank you!
http://www.petitiononline.com/PubOp676/petition.html
http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/keepthepledge?source=email&subsource=fwd
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5649/t/4951/content.jsp?content_KEY=2793&tag=pod_auto-email1