Wednesday, July 09, 2003

Democrats struggle to prevent Republican from looting Medicare

Julie Elpeirin of WaPo writes:

The idea of federal subsidies for private health insurance emerged yesterday as a key obstacle in lawmakers' quest to resolve House and Senate differences and add prescription drug coverage to Medicare.

But... But... If there's no federal subsidy, how will aWol's malAdministration be able to loot Medicare by steering taxpayer dollars to politically wired firms? (And if it takes a subsidy to get the private companies involved, why not just have the government do it in the first place?)

36 Democratic Senators write:

"The bill cannot give seniors false choices that coerce them into leaving conventional Medicare to enroll in HMOs and private plans," the Democrats wrote. "It is wrong to provide greater resources to enrich private plans while starving Medicare in the bargain. It is wrong to legislate a vast social experiment that would raise premiums for Medicare and victimize the oldest and sickest senior citizens."

But... But... If the already federally subsidized firms can't cherrypick, how are their CEOs going to get rich and fund more think tanks and MWs to generate the memes that will make even richer when they privatize the whole Medicare program?