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Wendell Potter’s call for Medicare supporters to wake up

Wendell Potter’s call for Medicare supporters to wake up

Priceless safety net reaches Golden Anniversary

Medicare’s impressive milestone is reason to celebrate the safety net and time for supporters to wake up to threat of increased privatization

By Wendell Potter
medicareresources.org, July 23, 2015r

Happy birthday, Medicare! Happy Golden Anniversary!

The fact that we have such a special milestone to celebrate means that the opposition of wealthy, entrenched special interests can be overcome. But, as we will see, an entirely different group of special interests is now profiting as a result of a very favorable financial arrangement with what has become an immense federal program. They are making such rapid inroads that the original Medicare program may all but cease to exist over the next decade if the program’s supporters don’t wake up to what is a real existential threat.

Public program increasingly becoming private

Republican lawmakers whose goal was to privatize the program succeeded in passing legislation to enable insurance companies to provide coverage to Medicare beneficiaries – on the government’s dime. To entice them to get in the game, the government agreed to pay them considerably more than what it would cost to provide benefits to Medicare-eligible folks if they stayed in the original program. This not only enabled the insurers to make a tidy profit, it also allowed what are now called Medicare Advantage plans to offer a drug benefit before the traditional program was authorized to do so and to cover all medical costs, not just 80 percent. In exchange, beneficiaries could only get care provided by doctors, hospitals and other facilities that were in their insurance company’s provider network.

Insurance companies have spent billions of dollars over the past few years on sales and marketing campaigns to persuade beneficiaries to enroll in or switch to their Medicare Advantage plans. They’ve been so successful that a third of Medicare beneficiaries – 16.6 million at last count – are now enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, most of which are operated as HMOs and PPOs.

Medicare’s growing value to insurers

If Medicare Advantage enrollment trends continue – and there is no reason to believe they won’t – within a few years, possibly before the end of this decade, we will reach a tipping point in which more people will be enrolled in private plans than in the original program.

That very real possibility should be of great concern to health care reform advocates who think Americans would be much better off if all of us – not just senior citizens and the disabled – were enrolled in an improved, “Medicare for All” program.

The word “improved” in that last sentence is essential. As medical costs continue to go through the roof, the 20 percent coinsurance obligation in the traditional program will make the Medicare Advantage plans increasingly attractive. If I were leading the strategy for the “Medicare for All crowd,” I would focus a lot of attention on strengthening the traditional program to make it every bit as comprehensive and attractive as a Medicare Advantage plan.

If that doesn’t happen, Medicare’s next significant birthday will be celebrated most enthusiastically by the shareholders and executives of private insurance companies.

http://www.medicareresources.org/blog/2015/07/23/priceless-safety-net-reaches-golden-anniversary/

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Comment:

By Don McCanne, MD

Mark Wendell Potter’s words. If we want an improved Medicare for all, we need to focus on strengthening the traditional program “to make it every bit as comprehensive and attractive as a Medicare Advantage plan.” Yes, but even more than that.

If benefits of the traditional Medicare program, especially the deductibles and coinsurance, were even better than the Medicare Advantage plans, then there would be no reason that Medicare beneficiaries would want the restrictions of the private plans, such as limiting their choices of physicians and hospitals to the networks selected by the private plans.

For those who say that we cannot afford to improve Medicare’s benefits, they will have to explain to us why it is then acceptable to give the private Medicare Advantage plans more taxpayer funds than are spent on comparable patients in the traditional program. Aren’t those in the traditional program worthy of the same level of spending? Then we need to explain to them how we could increase benefits without increasing total spending, by putting in place the substantial efficiencies of a single payer version of an improved Medicare for all.

With the release of the Medicare Trustees report, the conversation has returned to the need to control spending. The privatizers are out with their schemes to control government spending (but not total spending). Jeb Bush says that we need to “phase out” Medicare and “move to a new system” – presumably premium support vouchers which shift costs from the government to the beneficiaries.

We need to control total health care costs, not control only government spending while allowing total costs to escalate. So let’s change the conversation from that of cutting Medicare to that of improving Medicare while making it affordable – a feat which we can accomplish only if we convert it to a single payer system.

The modern-day health miracle known as Medicare

By Mary L. Ford
Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, Mass.), Letters, July 24, 2015

I’m fed up with citizens complaining that government is a problem, not a solution. I want my children and nieces and nephews to know that because of Medicare, my generation as we grow old does not have to turn to them to cover hospital bills and doctors’ costs.

Only 2 percent of Americans over 65 lack coverage today. That’s public sector success. Fifty years ago President Johnson signed Medicare into law. It was a scaled-back first step toward universal health coverage in the U.S. which had failed to get enough support under Harry Truman, like FDR before him.

Since elders often needed the most care, lived on reduced incomes and had earned the right to be free from worry about affording medical attention, elected officials decided to start by covering them.

By lessening financial stress for retirees and their children, this 1965 program helped millions of families increase their standards of living over the next quarter century.

Of course, Medicare’s inherent aim was to improve the health of seniors by enabling them to afford needed services. And it worked. For just one example, cataract surgery in those over 65 doubled between 1965 and 1975, using modern technology to maintain vision and independence.

Fast forward to 2013 when a study showed federally insured seniors accessing services and avoiding medical debt at a rate much better than any other group. Medicare beneficiaries even fared twice as well as those insured through workplaces.

With a small Medicare payroll tax, a monthly premium after age 65 and minimal paperwork, the basic guarantee of covering most of seniors’ doctor and hospital bills has been both effective and efficient (only 1.6 percent of the dollars go to administration and overhead, according to the 2013 trustees’ report).

Medicare was expanded first to include another category of people with high health expenses and lower incomes – those unable to work for two years due to disability. Over time it has added more preventive services as well as a prescription option. Medicare’s straightforward administration has enabled it to add benefits smoothly and include new categories of beneficiaries, like those on kidney dialysis.

Today, Medicare is the largest insurance program in the U.S., public or private, serving more than 52 million people. It needs tweaks to be sure, but is deemed highly successful by health economists and beneficiaries. This month’s Medicare Trustees’ report shows full funding through 2030, beating projections.

Still, harkening back to earlier political struggles, the most “moderate” Republican front-runner said this past Wednesday in New Hampshire that we need to “phase out” the program in the future.

Wrong! We should expand this program, making improvements where necessary, eventually covering all Americans and releasing employers from having to run what is actually a societal benefit.

Most Americans now rely on Medicare as part of their family security. We expect it to provide adequate health coverage in later life and earlier in case of significant disability.

It enrolls and treats the healthy 65-year-old the same as the person with multiple chronic illnesses. Unlike private insurers, this taxpayer plan has little need for sales reps, expensive advertising and hordes of claims denial clerks. Doctors and their staff waste less time determining eligibility. This is a case of a public program functioning better than companies competing in a market.

President Obama’s Affordable Care Act spurred years of outrage about “government taking over health care” although, ironically, it mostly applied patches to private insurance systems.

The true national health insurance plan is Medicare, which has already been serving us for 50 years.

We take it for granted. Isn’t that a case of government fulfilling a real need of citizens, and getting it pretty much right?

In fact, isn’t this an example of what a practical, comprehensive, fair, cost-effective, no-drama program to provide health care at all stages of life ought to look like?

Let’s fight against any attempts to cut one of this country’s best programs.

Let’s work to get it improved and expanded to serve all of us.

I hope to see you at the celebration in front of City Hall at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

We’ll be wishing Medicare at 50 a hearty Happy Birthday … and hoping for many, many more years of its coverage ahead.

Mary L. Ford served as mayor of Northampton from 1992 to 1999. She has worked for Kaiser Permanente and for federally qualified community health centers.

http://www.gazettenet.com/home/17902674-95/mary-l-ford-the-modern-day-health-miracle-known-as-medicare

Trudy Lieberman’s “Wrong Prescription?”

Wrong Prescription? The failed promise of the Affordable Care Act

By Trudy Lieberman
Harper’s Magazine, July 2015

It’s bad enough that the A.C.A. is fattening up the health-care industry and hollowing out coverage for the middle class. Even worse, the law is accelerating what I call the Great Cost Shift, which transfers the growing price of medical care to patients themselves through high deductibles, coinsurance (the patient’s share of the cost for a specific service, calculated as a percentage), copayments (a set fee paid for a specific service), and limited provider networks (which sometimes offer so little choice that patients end up seeking out-of-network care and paying on their own). What was once good, comprehensive insurance for a sizable number of Americans is being reduced to coverage for only the most serious, and most expensive, of illnesses.

The A.C.A.’s greatest legacy may finally be the fulfillment of a conservative vision laid out three decades ago, which sought to transform American health care into a market-driven system. The idea was to turn patients into shoppers, who would naturally look for the best deal on care — while shifting much of the cost onto those very consumers.

“Wrong Prescription?”: http://harpers.org/archive/2015/07/wrong-prescription/

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Comment:

By Don McCanne, MD

Harper’s Magazine has now moved Trudy Lieberman’s “Wrong Prescription?” out from behind the paywall, making it available for free.

It is an extraordinary article that explains the what, why and how we ended up with the wrong prescription for our sick health care financing system. Though a fairly long article, reading it and sharing it with others is an imperative.

The article does not dwell on what is the right prescription, but there are basically three options:

  1. Live with ACA, and try to patch the the defects. The problem with this is that the fundamental infrastructure cannot be repaired. Patches are inadequate in that the same basic structural flaws would be perpetuated.
  2. Although the Republicans keep telling us that they have a replacement plan, after five years they have been unable to agree within themselves on the specifics. That said, they have telegraphed their ideas, and, combined, they are basically a weaker version of the market-driven principles already incorporated in the Affordable Care Act. They would merely weaken oversight of the plans and shift even more responsibility to the patient-consumer. Being uninsured, underinsurance, and lack of affordability of adequate coverage would all worsen under their proposals.
  3. A single payer national health program – an improved Medicare for all – would finally achieve our goals of universality, affordability and accessibility while removing financial barriers through an equitable system of financing. It is the prescription we desperately need.

Take a moment this weekend to read this article and then share it with others. At the 50th anniversary of Medicare, this article is very timely. We have to fix this system once and for all, but that means that everyone must understand why ACA was the wrong prescription.

Healthcare ‘Oligopoly Wave’ Continues As Anthem Gobbles Cigna

Human rights campaigners say mega consolidation will erode healthcare access and hike prices, illustrating deep problems with for-profit model

By Sarah Lazare
Common Dreams, July 24, 2015

The health insurance giant Anthem announced Friday that it is buying its behemoth rival Cigna for $54.2 billion, launching the largest such merger the country has ever seen and reducing the number of major U.S. insurers to a paltry three.

Analysts and human rights campaigners warn that the move is poised to further slash access to healthcare and hike prices across the country, illustrating the problems with the for-profit model in terms of delivering vital services.

The mega deal comes less than a month after insurance giant Aetna acquired Humana for $37 billion, part of a nationwide push to consolidate in what the Wall Street Journal referred to earlier this year as an “oligopoly wave.”

The Anthem and Cigna merger is expected to be finalized in 2016, after which the joint company will provide coverage for at least 53 million people.

Numerous studies show that insurance mergers lead to higher premiums, including a 2012 analysis of a 1999 merger between Aetna and Prudential, as well as a report released in February which showed having more, not less, insurers in the insurance marketplace established by the Affordable Care Act leads to lower premiums.

Moreover, the mergers are taking place in a country that already has a dismal record with providing real care. A report released last year by the Commonwealth Fund finds that the U.S. healthcare system is already the most expensive in the world yet delivers the worse care among 11 industrialized nations.

Cait Vaughan, a Healthcare Is a Human Right organizer with the Southern Maine Workers Center, told Common Dreams that Friday’s merger underscores the fact that the Affordable Care Act model “is still a for-profit system that is not determined by our needs, but determined by the desires and profit margins of huge conglomerates.”

Dr. David Himmelstein, co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program, told Common Dreams that the merger wave “will leave us with a small handful of insurance giants that are essentially monopolies. Much of their revenue comes from the government that pays hundreds of billions annually in premiums for private ‘Medicare Advantage’ plans, Medicaid managed care plans, and much of the premiums for the private plans bought on [ACA] insurance exchanges. Much of this money is wasted; Anthem and Cigna have overhead that’s nearly tenfold higher than traditional Medicare.”

What’s more, Himmelstein continued, “These monopolies are lightly regulated, and have used their enormous financial and political clout to avoid real oversight. Just this month, the insurers’ lobbying group hired as their new CEO Marilyn Tavenner, who as head of Medicare and Medicaid was responsible for regulating them until this spring.”

Vaughan emphasized that, in the “medical industrial complex,” people “made incredibly wealthy off of us being sick and limiting very basic access to healthcare while increasingly shrinking our ability to make choices.” In a presidential campaign cycle where we are “hearing a lot about how rich people control policy and elections,” Vaughan emphasized that it is vital to talk about the control of the wealthy over one of the most basic human rights: healthcare.

The growing nationwide movement for publicly-funded, universal healthcare is calling for a single-payer system in which the profit motive is cut out of the equation, and everyone is included.

But Brian Quinn, a law professor at Boston College, told the Washington Post that the frenzy of mergers could signal that the country is moving in the opposite direction: “It’s a little ironic I suppose that—over time—we may find ourselves moving towards a single payer healthcare system, but rather than it being government run, it may well be a small number of private, highly-regulated insurance companies.”

Sarah Lazare is a staff writer at Common Dreams.

http://commondreams.org/news/2015/07/24/healthcare-oligopoly-wave-continues-anthem-gobbles-cigna

Medicare Part D pays needlessly high brand-name drug prices

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Medicare Part D pays needlessly high brand-name drug prices compared with other OECD countries and with U.S. government programs

By Marc-André Gagnon, PhD. and Sidney Wolfe, MD.
Carleton University, School of Public Policy and Administration and Public Citizen, July 23, 2015

With $69.3 billion in prescription drug spending in 2013, Medicare Part D alone represents approximately 7% of the $993 billion global prescription drug market. Around 58% of Medicare Part D spending on prescription drugs is paid to brand-name manufacturers.

Despite its size, Medicare Part D is not allowed to “interfere with the negotiations between drug manufacturers and pharmacies and [Part D plan] sponsors” (P.L. 108-73, Section 1860D-11). Plan sponsors can obtain substantial rebates from both drug manufacturers and pharmacies, but the federal program is prohibited from leveraging its purchasing power to realize economies of scale due to this non- interference clause.

As this policy brief will show, by using previously unavailable data comparing U.S. brand-name drug prices with those of all other countries members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Medicare Part D needlessly pays significantly higher prices than any other comparator countries. Moreover, even in comparison to other U.S. government programs such as Medicaid and the Veterans’ Benefits Administration (VBA), significantly higher prices are paid by Medicare Part D.

Highlights

1. After including rebates, brand-name drugs cost Medicare Part D 198% of the median costs for the same brand-name drugs in the 31 OECD countries.

2. Medicare Part D pays on average 73% more than Medicaid and 80% more than the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) for brand-name drugs.

3. Medicare Part D would save from $15.2 billion to $16 billion a year if it could secure the same prices that Medicaid or VBA, respectively, receives on the same brand-name drugs.

4. While Medicaid and VBA often are used as benchmarks because of the rebates or discounts they secure, even these organizations pay higher prices than many OECD countries.

5. Under current Medicare Part D pricing, non-innovative “me-too” drugs are priced as much or more than older, equally effective versions. By currently paying inflated prices for drugs that do not provide value for money, Medicare Part D artificially increases the returns and incentives for non-innovative “me-too” drugs to the detriment of new innovative medicines for unmet needs.

6. Reducing brand-name drug prices would reduce the high level of cost-related non-adherence (people not filling their prescription for financial reasons) found in Part D, by reducing beneficiaries’ premiums and co-pays. In addition, since the government pays for the majority of Medicare Part D, taxpayers’ contribution would decrease by at least $11 billion every year.

From the Conclusions and Policy Considerations

The after-rebate prices Medicare Part D plan sponsors pay for brand-name drugs remain significantly higher than the current market prices found in other countries or in other programs such as Medicaid or VBA. Medicare Part D would save between $15.2 billion and $16 billion a year if it could obtain the same manufacturer prices that Medicaid or VBA, respectively, obtains for the same brand-name drugs. Lower brand-name drug prices for Medicare Part D not only would generate savings, but, by increasing patient access to prescribed drugs, it also could improve adherence to treatments by reducing the high level of cost-related non-adherence found in Medicare Part D.

While Medicaid and VBA obtain almost equivalent brand-name price levels, they create completely different incentives for pharmaceutical R&D. The unconditional “basic rebates” of Medicaid foster the current business of developing me-too drugs while creating an incentive to artificially inflate official prices. The proactive drug formulary management of VBA maximizes therapeutic value for every dollar spent and thus provides greater incentives for producing more innovative products.

The main argument against managed formularies is that such formularies restrict patients’ choices. Indeed, managed formularies do not reimburse all new drugs, only those that provide value for money. However, freedom of choice is never at stake, since patients can decide to pay out of pocket for the drugs or treatments they desire, even if clinical evidence shows that these treatments do not provide therapeutic value for money. A managed formulary for prescription drugs does not reduce freedom of choice; it only reduces the freedom to needlessly waste taxpayers’ money.

https://carleton.ca/sppa/2015/sppas-marc-andre-gagnon-releases-report-with-public-citizen-on-medicare-part-d-medication-prices/

Policy Brief (19 pages): http://carleton.ca/sppa/wp-content/uploads/Mirror-Mirror-Medicare-Part-D-Released.pdf

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Comment:

By Don McCanne, MD

This report compares drug spending in the United States with other OECD nations and contrasts the higher prices in Medicare Part D with the lower prices in the Veterans’ Benefits Administration (VBA) and the Medicaid programs. Although supporters of the Medicare Part D drug program continue to tout the savings from the plans, this report shows us how we would be far better off if we used a public purchasing program such as that of the VBA instead of depending on competition of private pharmacy benefit managers wherein the government is prohibited from interfering in negotiations.

This report provides data that can be used to refute PhRMA’s contention that “fundamentally alter(ing) the structure of the successful Medicare Part D program would hurt both taxpayers and beneficiaries” (WSJ Pharmalot, July 23). To the contrary, it would help both taxpayers and beneficiaries.

Happy 50th Medicare!

By Paul Y. Song, M.D.
The Huffington Post, July 24, 2015

When I graduated from medical school almost 25 years ago, I was asked by then U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Koop, to raise my right hand and recite the Hippocratic Oath. In it, I recall “I will abstain from that system which is deleterious and mischievous to my patients.”

Unfortunately, in the years since, I have seen far too many of my patients fall victim to a system that is very deleterious, mischievous, and just plan immoral.

While the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was a start and has definitely helped a lot of people, it should be noted that in the run-up to the ACA, there were more than 3,300 registered healthcare lobbyists spending $1.2 million a day. In total, more than the entire cost of the Bush-Kerry election was spent lobbying Congress, and that is why much of the ACA looks like it was written by the private insurance industry. As a result, it firmly entrenches a for-profit industry that only makes money by denying people care in charge of our healthcare decisions and system.

The inconvenient truth about the ACA is that even with all of the positive aspects of the law, we still have a deeply flawed system where:

  1. Our nation still spends twice as much as any other industrialized nation.
  2. Our undocumented brothers and sisters are left out and over 30 million people will still be uninsured by 2025.
  3. Far too many people with insurance continue to go bankrupt due to a medical illness.
  4. This year alone, 10 million insured Americans are projected to accumulate medical bills they will not be able to pay off.
  5. Up to 35 million Americans with insurance will delay seeing a doctor due to high co-pays and deductibles.
  6. Premiums continue to climb well above wages and inflation, and workers are having to contribute more every year, all while the private insurance industry rakes in record profits and watches their stock prices hit all time highs.
  7. Healthcare benefits remain the number one cause of labor negotiation strife.
  8. Medicaid remains a second-class system with too many doctors and hospitals refusing to accept Medicaid.

As we lament these continuing deficiencies, many Americans will come together this July 30th to celebrate the 50th birthday of our country’s most successful healthcare system, Medicare. When Medicare was established, only 44 percent of all seniors were insured and nearly one-third of all seniors were living in poverty.

While many conservative politicians like to bash Medicare and are constantly trying to privatize it, it is important to remember the facts.

In 1995, Republicans pledged that by placing at least 20 percent of Medicare beneficiaries in private HMOs would save $270 billion over seven years. Instead, Medicare has overpaid private insurers $282.6 billion since 1985, roughly 24.4 percent of all Medicare payments. And despite the initial ACA plan to reduce future wasteful payments for Medicare Advantage, there has since been bipartisan and White House approval to actually increase payments despite the fact that beneficiaries continue to rate traditional Medicare more favorably than Medicare Advantage in terms of access and quality of care.

When powerful insurers like United Healthcare and Anthem use their massive market share to negotiate deep discounts in prescription drugs for their members, it is considered good “free market” business tactics. Yet, Medicare Part D enacted by Congress not only prevented Medicare from doing the same, but also saddled Medicare with private administrative costs of almost 10 percent.

And unlike private insurance companies that constantly get between patients and their doctors, Medicare does not. Medicare does not tell my patients which doctor they have to see or which hospital they can go to. It does not require pre-approval and it is does not tell doctors like me what tests to order or what drugs to prescribe.

Thus it is very important that we continue to all remind naysayers that Medicare despite being undermined by Congress and consistently caring for older and sicker patients, is more cost effective, provides better coverage, and has greater patient satisfaction than the private sector.

So on this 50 birthday, we need to take back the overall narrative about Medicare. We need to fight to not only protect Medicare by eliminating these indefensible subsidies for big powerful corporations, but to make it better and expand it for all.

But, this will only happen once we as a society, wake up and say enough is enough to private insurance strangle hold that only cares about profits, and not patients.

As more and more private insurers consolidate and merge into a de facto for-profit single payer, we need to fight harder than ever to protect the only single payer that cares as much for least among us as it does the top 1 percent.

In 1966, Martin Luther King raged that “of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.” Sadly, this inequality is worse now than it was back then.

It is therefore time for us to come together with one voice to hold our elected officials who protect the status quo accountable and fight back against this immoral and evil system. It is time for Medicare for all!

Paul Y. Song is a physician, executive chairman of the Courage Campaign, and health care activist.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-y-song-md/happy-50th-medicare_b_7859398.html

Health care: Policy makers ignore exploitation

By Richard A. Damon, M.D.
The Missoulian, Letters, July 23, 2015

I am convinced the health care system’s systematic exploitation of the middle class, for the benefit of the privileged few in the U.S., has been purposefully overlooked, underestimated and conveniently ignored by congressional policy makers, major health industry players and health care reform analysts.

The regressive policy-making, in my view, is no accident, but primarily based on self-serving political interests that welcome the financial benefits from medical industrial stakeholders, who in turn profit from the status quo. Policy-makers refuse to view health care as an economic good for the entire nation. They promote illusions and outright misconceptions to manipulate public thinking about health care issues.

The premises ignored by those who make the laws are: (1) The burden of paying for health care, a common good, should not fall disproportionately on those who are least able to pay for it, and (2) Americans with lower incomes should not be compelled to pay for health care coverage that is consumed disproportionately by the well-to-do.

Nevertheless, the system we have is designed by and for elite interests, rewarding the providers of insurance, drug makers and essential medical devise purveyors. The eventual day may come where populist policymakers will tell consumer-voters the truth about the extortion-like protection schemes practiced on them by the health care industry complex that guarantees profits off the sick while making consumers choose between paying what the system demands versus putting their family’s health at risk. This truth has been kept from consumers and preserved under the cloak of trickle-down, market-based economics.

Responsible health care reform legislation lies idle (H.R. 676) at the door of congressional action. The improved “Medicare for all” movement might gain political traction if middle-income consumers were enlightened about how much they are paying to support a health care industry essentially unaccountable for its escalating costs.

Dr. Richard A. Damon resides in Bozeman.

http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/mailbag/health-care-policy-makers-ignore-exploitation/article_9ccc04db-be09-56a9-b960-cb6d0848cbc2.html

Chicago Stagehands Local 2 Endorses HR 676, National Single Payer Legislation

Single Payer News, July 19, 2015

Thomas Cleary, Secretary-Treasurer of Stagehands Local 2 in Chicago, reports that his local has wholeheartedly endorsed HR 676, Congressman John Conyers’ national single payer health care legislation, Expanded and Improved Medicare for All. 

“I would rather see my members’ contributions go to their personal wellness than to another nameless insurance company’s administrative costs,” Cleary said.

“The Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010, made it possible for some of the uninsured to find coverage, but did not resolve the problem that health insurance companies are providing inadequate coverage and pricing care beyond our means,” states the Local 2 resolution.

The resolution notes the difficulties that all unions are having in negotiations over health care and asserts that the Excise Tax of 2018, the so-called “Cadillac Tax”, will make things worse.

“HR 676 would save billions of dollars annually by eliminating the administrative burdens, overhead, and profits of the private health insurance industry and apply those savings to improved and expanded coverage for all,” the resolution concludes.

Hale Landes, a member of IBEW Local 134 and labor outreach chair of the Illinois Single Payer Coalition, and Bill Bianchi of Illinois Progressive Democrats of America organized to bring the single payer resolution to Local 2 leaders.

Local 2 is affiliated with International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts (IATSE), a union that has played a major role in galvanizing support for single payer in locals around the country.

IATSE Local 2 is the 620th labor organization to endorse HR 676.  The local also passed a resolution supporting the Illinois legislation, HB 108, introduced by State Representative Mary Flowers.

http://unionsforsinglepayer.org

https://www.facebook.com/unionsforsinglepayer

Single payer would change the game

By Chinh Le, M.D.
Corvallis (Ore.) Gazette Times, Letters, July 23, 2015

“Readers will react quite differently to the headline: “Medicaid costs: Oregon faces soaring price tag” (Gazette-Times, July 20), depending on their ideological inclination.

“Can’t trust those irresponsible bureaucrats! Obamacare is a fraud, I told you so,” would say my fiscally conservative friend.

“Well, spending 10 percent of our state budget (as projected by 2010) to care for our medically indigents is actually not an irresponsible figure,” my socialist counterpart would say. “Aren’t we our brothers’ keepers?”

The headline, unfortunately, is somewhat misleading: predicting medical costs based only on body counts and insurance rates is like forecasting the economy on a very limited set of data and assumptions. Our health costs are driven by a multitude of factors that are in a state of constant changes and interactive adjustments, such as delivery of care, providers’ payments, medical innovations, consumer behavior, access to preventive care and mental health, just to name a few.

Non-Medicaid insured patients should also brace themselves for increases in premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, justified by the “free-market” side of medical economics, says one person, or to assure greedy profits for the medical-industrial complex, says another.

Balancing medical costs, funding, and benefits is like a game of bouncing hot potatoes. Another term is “cost-shifting.” One way or another, we will all pay for them.

Tired of the way the game is played? Then think “single payer system;” universal health care, privately delivered, and publicly funded by an equitable progressive taxation policy. An improved form of Medicare-for-All. Affordable, dependable, and socially responsible.

Dr. Chinh Le resides in Corvallis.

http://www.gazettetimes.com/letter-single-payer-would-change-the-game/article_2b1a052e-1b4d-5d19-88aa-21cf30d0b149.html

Wrong Prescription?

The failed promise of the Affordable Care Act

By Trudy Lieberman
Harper’s, July 2015

In July 2009, as the Affordable Care Act moved through Congress, Steny Hoyer, the second-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, laughed at the idea that any legislator would actually read the bill before voting on it. If such full-body immersion were necessary to support the A.C.A., he said, “I think we would have very few votes.” In March 2010, just before the law passed, speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made a similar point. Addressing a national conference of county officials, she declared, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.”

Five years after its passage, the A.C.A. is not only the most hotly debated and vituperatively denounced law of the era — it is still shrouded in a fog of controversy. Many Americans have no idea how the bill works or what it was designed to accomplish. In March, a Kaiser Family Foundation study found “significant” knowledge gaps in the public’s understanding of the law. A third of the participants were unaware of the law’s key provision: offering subsidies for the uninsured.

It is no wonder Americans have been hard-pressed to learn anything about the actual workings of the A.C.A. There has been little criticism of the A.C.A. from the left, with prominent figures such as Paul Krugman, the economist and New York Times columnist, acting as cheerleaders. The right has confined itself to disinformation and risible smears, with G.O.P. presidential hopeful Ben Carson memorably defining the A.C.A. as “the worst thing that has happened to this nation since slavery.” A lack of clarity on both sides — and some deliberate bait-and-switch tactics — dogged the very creation of the law.

The A.C.A. was sold to the public on the pledge of “affordable, quality health care.” This slogan, crafted in the shop of the Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, was incessantly pushed by everyone from grassroots advocates to top government officials, even as healthcare.gov, the new A.C.A. website, was crashing down around them in the fall of 2013. Trying to spin the disaster on Meet the Press, Pelosi grandly promised her viewers “more affordability, more accessibility, better-quality care, prevention, wellness, a healthier nation honoring the vows of our founders of life, a healthier life, [and] liberty to pursue their happiness.” President Obama, too, repeated the mantra at every opportunity. Shortly before the exchanges established by the law opened for business, he affirmed that uninsured Americans would now have “the same chance to buy quality, affordable health care as everyone else.”

Full article: http://harpers.org/archive/2015/07/wrong-prescription/

Chicago nurses, community leaders plan celebration for Medicare’s 50th anniversary

National Nurses United, July 23, 2015

CHICAGO — Registered nurses and other community leaders will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid Thursday July 30 with a festive event and action in Chicago.

The celebration is part of a national day of action, in over 25 U.S. cities, that calls on policy makers to protect, improve, and expand Medicare to cover all Americans with a single standard of quality care not based on ability to pay. The overall theme is  “Medicare is as American as Apple Pie,” i.e. to Protect, Improve and Expand (PIE) Medicare to cover everyone.

“After 50 years, we have a lot of experience with Medicare, enough time to see that it works, has kept tens of millions of Americans out of poverty, and remains enormously popular,” said NNU Co-President Jean Ross, RN, who will be one of the event’s speakers.

Details on the Chicago event:

What: Celebration and Protest Action for Medicare’s 50th Anniversary
When: Thursday, July 30 11:30 am – 2 pm. Protest action at Humana 11:45 a.m.
Where: Heritage Green Park, 610 W. Adams (at Des Plaines)
Protest action at Humana, 550 W. Adams

As part of the day’s activities, a protest will be held at Humana health insurance, to highlight the problems with privatization proposals put forth by Medicare opponents, such as Rep. Paul Ryan. Efforts to even partially privatize Medicare, such as through the Medicare Advantage program, through companies like Humana, costs much more than public delivery of healthcare through traditional Medicare, nurses say. The action will underscore the fact that while Medicare’s administrative costs remain very low at 1.6%, Humana has charged billions of dollars in “administrative costs,” that should have gone directly to patient care.

“Schemes to privatize or erode Medicare would be devastating for many, many people. The best way to protect Medicare is to upgrade it and expand it to cover everyone. It is time for this country to catch up with other nations and implement a universal system of guaranteed healthcare,” Ross said.

“The Affordable Care Act has failed to eliminate the vast numbers of uninsured and underinsured. It is weak in its attempt to control costs as insurance companies seek to increase their rates. A Medicare-for-all system would be a strong negotiator for fair pricing and give truly equitable access for all,” said Duane Dowell, M.D. a retired pediatrician and past president of Physicians for a National Health Program-Illinois.

“July 30th marks the 50th anniversary of the successful Medicare program. In order to guarantee access to comprehensive, high quality health care for all residents in the U.S. Medicare has to be improved and extend to everyone from birth to death. Everybody in, nobody out,” said Sonja Rotenberg, Board President, Illinois Single Payer Coalition.

The event is co-sponsored by National Nurses United, Illinois Single Payer Coalition, Physicians for A National Health Plan, Alliance for Community Services, Chicago Federation of Labor, Champaign County AFL-CIO, Northern Illinois Jobs with Justice, Chicago Jobs with Justice, Health and Medicine Policy Research Group, Radical Public Health, Students for a National Health Plan, Illinois Alliance for Retired Americans, Fox Valley Citizens for Peace and other co-sponsoring organizations.

The day of action for Medicare’s 50th anniversary includes actions in Boston and Western Massachusetts, Chicago, Dearborn, Detroit, El Paso, Tx., Lakewood, Oh., Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Oakland, Portland, Me., St. Paul, Mn., Washington DC, and other cities, including additional locales to be announced.

Information about events in other cities can be found at: https://www.healthcare-now.org/medicares-anniversary/50th/events/#DC

Source: www.nationalnursesunited.org

Medicare Trustees Report: Part B premiums a threat to solidarity

Good News, Bad News In Medicare Trustees Report

By Phil Galewitz
Kaiser Health News, July 23, 2015

As Medicare approaches its 50th anniversary next week, the federal program got some welcome financial news Wednesday: Its giant hospital trust fund will be solvent until 2030, and its long-term outlook has improved, according to a report from the program’s trustees.

But the report warned that several million Medicare beneficiaries could see their Medicare Part B monthly premiums skyrocket by 52 percent in January — from $104.90 to $159.30. Medicare Part B, which is paid for by a combination of federal funds and beneficiary premiums, generally covers physician and outpatient costs.

The huge rate hike is predicted because of a confluence of two factors: Medicare Part B costs increased more than expected last year, and Social Security is not expected to have a cost of living increase next year. By law, the cost of higher Medicare Part B premiums can’t be passed on to most Medicare beneficiaries when they don’t get a Social Security raise. As a result, the higher Medicare costs have to be covered by just 30 percent of Medicare beneficiaries. This includes the 2.8 million Medicare enrollees new to the program next year, 3.1 million Medicare beneficiaries with incomes higher than $85,000 a year and 1.6 million Medicare beneficiaries who pay their premium directly instead of having it deducted from Social Security. An additional 9 million people affected by the higher rates are so called “dual eligibles” — those on Medicare and Medicaid. States pay the Medicare Part B premium for duals.

Medicare Part B premiums are set largely by a complicated formula written into law. The trustees’ predictions on premiums are typically close to the final rates that are announced each fall by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Medicare advocacy groups expressed concern about the projected rate increase. Judith Stein, executive director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, said she is concerned the predicted Medicare Part B premium hike signals that, for many, the program is becoming too expensive. She said the higher premiums will force more seniors to join Medicare Advantage which offers lower costs but also restricts which providers they can use.

“I am concerned that people will start to rail against Medicare rather than love it, as they have for 50 years,” Stein said.

The trustees report noted that the financial health of the program is being helped by factors such as an improved economy, while other factors such as more seniors in private Medicare Advantage are increasing costs. The government pays higher costs for those in Medicare Advantage, which is managed care.

http://khn.org/news/good-news-bad-news-in-medicare-trustees-report/

Medicare Trustees Report (Premiums covered in Appendix E): http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/ReportsTrustFunds/Downloads/TR2015.pdf

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Comment:

By Don McCanne, MD

Fifty years ago Medicare was established as an egalitarian program designed to ensure affordable access to care, beginning with our senior citizens, with plans to eventually cover everyone. Financing was through equitable payroll taxes and general revenues based on ability to pay. Benefits were the same for everyone eligible. Its success can be attributed to citizen solidarity in support of this highly popular program.

However, very powerful political elements, driven by conservative and libertarian ideology, have been successful in preventing a serious effort to expand Medicare to cover everyone. Instead, they have been trying to shift the responsibility of financing Medicare away from an equitable public risk pool and toward privatizing the system. We are already witnesses a bait and switch operation in which individuals are enticed into private Medicare Advantage plans not realizing that the intent is to eventually shift to a defined contribution method of financing (premium support, vouchers) in which the individual will be responsible for an ever-increasing share of the costs.

Initially everyone paid the same premiums for Part B Supplemental Medical Insurance (SMI) that covered physician, outpatient and other services. The premiums currently cover one-fourth of the Part B costs, and the other three-fourths is paid through general revenues. The premium is regressive since higher-income individuals pay a smaller percentage of their income for premiums than do lower-income individuals (though income taxes for general revenues are progressive). It was decided to increase premiums for higher-income individuals, though without reducing premiums for those with lower incomes. This has a net affect of shifting costs away from the government pool and onto individuals. Understandably, many of those who had to pay higher premiums thought that they were not getting as good of a deal as the others. The perception has now been established that the benefits are no longer equal for all.

The current Medicare Trustees Report projects what is happening to these Part B premiums. It is anticipated that there will not be a cost-of-living increase in Social Security benefits next year. Part B premiums are deducted from the Social Security benefits, but the rules prohibit any increase in Part B premiums from reducing the Social Security payment. Thus the 70 percent of Medicare beneficiaries who pay the premiums through Social Security deductions will not have any increase in their Part B premiums next year.

Since one-fourth of Part B costs are paid by the premiums, and 70 percent of beneficiaries will have no increases in their premiums, the other 30 percent will have to make up the difference. The numbers are significant. For the 30 percent without a freeze in their premiums, the standard premium is projected to increase from $104.90 to $159.30. For individuals with higher incomes, premium increases are on a sliding scale. Those at the 80 percent threshold will see their Part B premiums increase from the current $335.70 to an estimated $509.80 (Table V.E3 in Trustees Report). These individuals surely will think that this is not a good deal.

With diminishing solidarity, many of these wealthier individuals will be intrigued with a system that allows them to take care of their own health care needs by buying an insurance product in the marketplace, and leave the rest of us on our own to take care of ourselves. This, of course, is where Medicare Advantage and the next iteration of premium support is taking us.

Egalitarianism. Solidarity. Social justice. Your brother’s keeper. What happened? I guess we’ll have to ask Cain. Or maybe the Koch brothers since we don’t have Cain’s phone number.