Medicare (old) – Page 2 – Healthcare-NOW

Government insiders misappropriate funds to Medicare Advantage insurers

By Don McCanne for PNHP – U.S. to boost rather than cut payments to health insurers By Sandhya Somashekhar The Washington Post, April 1, 2013 The Obama administration reversed itself Monday, scrapping plans to cut by 2.2 percent the rates paid to health insurers that take part in the Medicare Advantage program. The insurance industry…

“Protect our Health, Not Their Wealth” Rally in Albany

Wednesday, March 20 – 60 people rallied in front of Albany Medical Center under the banner, “Protect OUR Health, Not THEIR Wealth.” Speakers and protesters called for “No Grand Bargain” – Hands off Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid,” “Scrap the Cap on Social Security,” “Oppose Privatization of our Public Hospitals and Nursing Homes,” and “Single…

Top CEOs Plan to Loot US Social Programs

By Margaret Flowers for Al Jazeera – A top CEO plan to curb social programs will be bad for everyone – except them. The new recommendations for Social Security and Medicare released by the Business Round Table are beyond belief. It’s as if the people who wrote them never gaze outside of the tinted windows…

Washington’s Revolving Door Is Hazardous to Our Health

By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship for Common Dreams – We’ve seen how Washington insiders write the rules of politics and the economy to protect powerful special interests, but now as we enter the holiday season, and a month or so after the election, we’re getting a refresher course in just how that inside game…

The Biggest Myth in Obama-GOP Showdown is the “Fiscal Cliff” Itself

By Democracy Now – As negotiations continue between the White House and House Speaker John Boehner, leading economist Dean Baker joins to discuss the myths about the so-called fiscal cliff. With little more than two weeks before the deadline, President Obama insists on an immediate increase in the top two income-tax rates as a condition…

Raising Medicare age could leave hundreds of thousands uninsured

By Greg Sargent for the Washington Post – It looks increasingly possible that lawmakers will reach a fiscal cliff deal that includes a hike in the Medicare eligibility age — a concession to those on the right who seem determined to see very deep entitlement cuts, even if they take benefits away from vulnerable seniors.…

Is Obama Selling Us Out on Medicare?

Hiking the eligibility age is such a terrible idea Obama can’t possibly be considering it. Or can he? By Joan Walsh for Alternet – I want to put a public service announcement on top of this post: The fiscal cliff scenarios discussed here may never become reality. The worst sell-outs of liberal principles allegedly under…

The Honest and Just Path to a Sustainable Medicare

By Jessica Schorr Saxe – In January 2009, at the age of 63 1/2, my friend Carol Bentley was laid off her 10-year job without warning. In a one-two punch, her health insurance ended the next day. She could not afford COBRA. Desperate about her medical expenses, she was rescued when federal stimulus money temporarily…

Raising The Medicare Age May Be Good GOP Politics

But Single-Payer Is The Better Solution For All Americans By Rick Ungar for Forbes – As the GOP pursues its ‘War on Entitlements’ as a part of the fiscal cliff ballet, the notion of raising the age for entering Medicare has been gaining steam as a focal point of reform for the financially stressed government…

GOP leaders offer ‘fiscal cliff’ counterproposal

Would Raise Medicare’s Eligibility Age to 67 By Lori Montgomery for the Washington Post – House GOP leaders endorsed a debt-reduction plan Monday that would raise tax collections by $800 billion over the next decade, but they refused to budge on higher tax rates for the wealthy, the central issue dividing Republicans and Democrats. In…