Bush Plan to Privatize Medicare Threatens Health Care for Seniors and Costs Government More

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Bush Plan to Privatize Medicare Threatens Health Care

for Seniors and Costs Government More

 

 

Contact: Cassandra McKee, 202-624-1729

 

(San Francisco) “Bush administration plans to

“privatize” Medicare are based on a flawed model and

sets the nation on the course for a disaster like

we’ve seen in California,” said Senior Action Network

Executive Director Bruce Livingston. “SAN is releasing

a dramatic report, The Dismal Failure of Medicare

Privatization today in New York and San Francisco to

put a human face on the Washington debate over the

future of health care for millions of Seniors.”

 

“The paradox is,” noted study author Dr. Thomas

Bodenheimer, a nationally recognized expert on health

policy noted, “that HMO’s don’t seem to want to

participate in it, most patients won’t enroll in it,

yet the Bush Administration sees privatization as the

“solution” to Medicare.

 

The report found that:

· During the 20 years that Medicare has paid private

insurance companies, the cost per beneficiary has been

higher in private plans than in public Medicare.

Medicare paid 13.2% more per year for patients

enrolled in private plans from 1998-2000.

· Uncovered health care costs have skyrocketed, with

2001 out-of-pocket expenses of beneficiaries in poor

health averaging $4783 nationally—over $7,000 this

year in some Bay Area counties.

· Rather than increasing choice, the so-called

Medicare+Choice privatization program has limited

Seniors’ choices of physicians and hospitals, in some

cases leading to disastrous medical results.

 

Jeff Blum, Executive Director of USAction, a national

progressive consumer organization, added, “Congress is

considering a prescription drug benefit run by the

private insurance industry, the first step towards

Medicare privatization. Why would anyone who

understands that Medicare is the nation’s most

effective health care system turn it over to the

HMO’s?”

 

“The history of the Medicare+Choice program in

California suggests that even if a program looks good

when it starts, “Bodenheimer noted, “it can

deteriorate quickly. It is likely that a Bush-crafted

Medicare privatization plan will initially offer

better benefits to seniors, but it can be anticipated

that that these benefits will rapidly erode.”

 

“Looking at the California experience, with over 1.4

million Seniors enrolled in privately provided

‘Medicare+Choice’ HMO’s,” Livingston noted, “we’ve

seen nothing but bad news:

 

· “Widespread denial of services to patients with

disastrous, sometimes fatal, results

· “Reduction, or elimination of choice of doctors and

hospitals, forcing patients into lower cost and lower

quality care; and

· “Severing ties between patients and long-time

physicians.

 

Two patients featured in the report may be available

for press interviews. Please contact Senior Action

Network for more information: 415-546-1334.

 

Senior Action Network is a grass-roots advocacy

organization passionately devoted to issues which

affect senior communities.

 

USAction is the nation’s largest progressive consumer

organization, dedicated to winning social and economic

justice for all. USAction represent three million

members in 33 affiliates, with statewide organizations

in 23 states.

 

About the Author:

Dr. Thomas Bodenheimer, MD, MPH

University of California at San Francisco School of

Medicine

Department of Family and Community Medicine

415-206-6348

tbodenheimer

 

Dr. Bodenheimer has made a life long commitment to the

practice of “community medicine” in San Francisco for

the past 32 years. He founded and headed the Bay West

Family Health Care Clinic serving the working poor and

the Mission community for the past 20 years. He served

as a physician at the Mission Neighborhood Health

Center for five years, and was a founder of the South

of Market Health Center where he worked for five

years.

 

Dr. Bodenheimer is a nationally recognized expert on

health policy. He is the noted co-author of the book

“Understanding Health Policy” and a frequent

contributor to prestigious publications such as the

Journal of the American Medical Association, Health

Affairs, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the

International Journal of Health Services. He is a

graduate of Harvard University, and Harvard Medical

School. He received his Masters in Public Health from

the University of California at Berkeley in 1969.