Your Family's Health

[Guest guest]

http://www.mob.org/_new/_pages/talking_points/tp_health.htm

 

Your Family's Health

 

Mothers know there is a health care crisis at hand.

You feel it in your pocketbook. Costs are up. You feel

it when your chest tightens if you can't afford to go

yourself or take your child to the doctor.

 

Did you know ...43 million Americans do not have

health care insurance, about 8 million of those are

children. Maybe you, a neighbor or friend live with

serious insecurity in which you ask, " What happens if

I get sick or injured? "

 

Older and disabled Americans enrolled in Medicare,

most of whom are women, thought they were getting good

news when, at long last, a Medicare prescription bill

became law. But, it turns out the truth was not told

to the American people. Not only are there hurdles to

actually getting the benefit, the Bush administration

hid the true costs.

 

Did you know ...Medicare's chief actuary, who last

week said an administration official had threatened to

fire him if he showed Congress his projected costs of

the bill to add a drug benefit to Medicare. Washington

Post, March 19, 2004.

 

When the House of Representatives passed the

controversial benefit by five votes last November, the

White House was embracing an estimate by the

Congressional Budget Office that it would cost $395

billion in the first 10 years. But for months the

administration's own analysts in the Centers for

Medicare and Medicaid Services had concluded

repeatedly that the drug benefit could cost upward of

$100 billion more than that.

 

Withholding the higher cost projections was important

because the White House was facing a revolt from 13

conservative House Republicans who'd vowed to vote

against the Medicare drug bill if it cost more than

$400 billion.

 

Rep. Sue Myrick of North Carolina, one of the 13

Republicans, said she was " very upset " when she

learned of the higher estimate.

 

" I think a lot of people probably would have

reconsidered (voting for the bill) because we said

that $400 billion was our top of the line, " Myrick

said.

 

This subject is on the minds and in the hearts of

every American.

 

* Who does not have a family member or a friend

who has been denied care or reimbursement?

* Who is not worried about prescription drug

costs?

 

As mothers we are afraid about rising costs to handle

our parents declining health, and we fear for our

ability to afford healthcare for our children. And we

fear for our own health as we settle into middle age

and beyond, and see the decline of Medicare to the

benefit of private health insurers.

 

Private healthcare insurers have a business mentality.

They may welcome you into their coverage plans with

initial low costs. These low costs come with yearly

contracts that have dangerous fine print. You can be

denied through pre-existing conditions as well as

future conditions. The healthcare providers may also

raise your rates based on their own estimates of cost.

 

Along with dissecting the Medicare Reform Bill on our

website for you, we will also try to find the best way

to communicate all the hidden meanings behind this new

legislation. The White House issued a document

entitled: " 2003: A Year of Accomplishment for the

American People, December 13, 2003. " The Center for

American Progress issued an analysis of the various

claims made about the quality of healthcare and

current legislation affecting all of us and our

friends and families. The summary below is taken from

the Center's document 2003: A YEAR OF DISTORTION FOR

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

 

According to White House officials, " The historic

legislation the President signed will create a modern

Medicare system, providing seniors with prescription

drug benefits. "

 

POINT #1: " The new law gives private insurers the

authority to ration access to drugs funded by

Medicare. Beneficiaries will have to choose a drug

insurer without knowing exactly what drugs that

insurer will cover. Premiums will be higher in areas

with older or sicker seniors. " [American Progress

Fellow Jeanne Lambrew, December 4, 2003]

 

POINT #2: " The Congressional Budget Office projects

that 2.7 million retirees are expected to lose the

drug coverage they currently receive through their

former employers because these employers will drop

coverage when the Medicare drug benefit becomes

available. " [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,

December 11, 2003]

 

POINT #3: " The insurance plan would provide little

relief for about three million people with moderate

assets and incomes near the poverty level and would

cost seniors with drug expenses under $835-a-year more

than they currently spend. " [boston Globe, November

11, 2003

 

POINT #4: " Under the new plan, seniors in the middle

income will pay an average of $1,650 a year in

out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs in 2006.

This figure is nearly 60 percent more than they paid

in 2000, even after adjusting for inflation. Expenses

are projected to continue to rise so that by 2013

middle-income seniors will be paying more than

two-and-a-half times as much for prescription drugs

(adjusting for inflation) as they did in 2000. "

[Center for Economic and Policy Research, December

4.003]

 

Medicare Shortcomings

 

The Washington Post, Letter to the Editor, Tuesday,

February 24, 2004, page A20.

NANCY PELOSI U.S. Representative (D-Calif.) House

Minority Leader, Washington, DC

" The (Washington Post) Feb. 17 editorial " Pricing

Drugs " revived stale arguments about price controls

that drugmakers and Republicans use whenever

improvements to Medicare are proposed.

Having Medicare negotiate the best price is not the

same as setting a price. If WellPoint can use the

purchasing power of its 26 million customers to lower

prices, Medicare should be able to do so for its 40

million customers.

Nor would Medicare be the first public agency to

negotiate prices. State Medicaid programs and the

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) do. The National

Academy of Sciences has found that the VA

drug-purchasing plan significantly reduced drug

expenditures without sacrificing quality.

And except when Congress sets a reimbursement rate in

law, Medicare has been an adept purchaser of health

care services. Medicare's annual administrative costs

also are just 3 percent of its budget; private

insurers' administrative costs average 15 percent.

A study by the Boston University School of Public

Health found that the Medicare law will lead to $139

billion more in profits for drug companies. It

concluded that " these unrestrained prices—given the

remarkably low real cost of producing the added

volumes of pills that Medicare patients need—will

bestow enormous windfall profits on prescription drug

makers. "

 

This is wrong, and it is why Democrats want to repeal

this lemon of a law, which creates a $46 billion slush

fund for Medicare HMOs while leaving seniors with

higher out-of-pocket costs and a huge gap in coverage.

We need a law that provides a guaranteed, defined,

accessible, affordable Medicare benefit and that

negotiates prices and lowers drug costs. "

 

When you know what's going on, you know what to do.