The Independent

This week, President Obama embarked on a public relations offensive hoping to convince skeptical Americans that the Democrats’ health care overhaul is good for them.  First up, the President held a nationally televised question-and-answer session with seniors to highlight the one-time, $250 rebate check that relatively few seniors will receive if they reach the Medicare Part D donut hole this year.  In fact, more than 9 in 10 Medicare beneficiaries will never receive one of these checks. Despite the PR campaign, the problem remains in the policy.  According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the $250 one-time check pales in comparison to the $8,980 per senior cut in Medicare spending under the law over the next ten years.  Because the new health care law harms seniors by slashing Medicare, Congressman Miller and his Republican colleagues will continue to fight to repeal the law.   

Last week, the chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) concluded that under Obamacare half of all seniors who have Medicare Advantage plans will lose their coverage.  Created in 2003, Medicare Advantage (MA) makes Medicare payments to private insurers seeking to provide health insurance to  America ’s seniors as a substitute to traditional Medicare coverage.  Under Medicare Advantage, the beneficiary pays traditional Medicare premiums and sometimes an additional premium for the extra benefits that may be provided under their new plan.  Under the new government-run health care system, CMS estimates that in 2017 – when the MA provisions will be fully phased in – enrollment in MA plans will be lower from its projected level of 14.8 million under the prior law to 7.4 million under the new law.  This will greatly affect seniors across the country.  In fact, in California ’s 42nd Congressional District, over 31,000 seniors rely on MA plans to meet their health car...

By ROBERT PEAR Published: December 28, 2009 WASHINGTON — At the heart of the fight over health care legislation is a paradox that befuddles lawmakers of both parties... Expanding Health Coverage and Shoring Up Medicare - Is It Double-Counting? - NYTimes.com  

House Passes $210 Billion Doc-Fix Without Paying for It On Thursday, the House passed a $210 billion stand-alone bill to protect doctors from scheduled cuts in Medicare payments over the next ten years, also known as a doc-fix. In 1997, Congress attempted to control Medicare’s skyrocketing growth through a payment formula known as the sustainable growth rate (SGR), and since its enactment it has been difficult for Congress to adhere to the resulting reductions in physicians’ payments. In fact, since 2002, Congress has stepped in to delay these cuts from taking place which has made the problem worse. Beginning January 2010, absent a change in law, Medicare physician payments will be reduced by more than 20 percent. In order to address this, the Majority cunningly detached the permanent doc-fix provision from the larger health care bill, the so-called Affordable Health Care for America Act, and introduced it separately—without it being paid for—so that the cost of the doc-fix would n...

November 25th, 2009, 5:00 am · Post a Comment · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer There were 2,386 reports of adult abuse in Orange County in 1994. There were nearly triple that many - 6,380 - in Orange County last year. And 2009 is on track to break records, with 21 new reports every day, or some 7,500 this year. The vast majority of these involve seniors being taken advantage of in their own homes, by friends or family members who are supposed to be protecting them. “Often, the people being abused and neglected don’t want their family member to get in trouble, so they’re hesitant to report anything,” said Carol Mitchell, program manager for Orange County Adult Protective Services. “That’s the biggest threat people get - ‘If you call them to complain, they’re going to put you in a nursing home.‘ But that can’t happen. We don’t have the authority to do that. Our goal is to maintain people in their homes.” Abuse investigations fall into Mitchell’s lap when people live in pr...