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Medicare
Bill no Rx for seniors
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2003 -- In
response to yesterday's conference agreement on Medicare prescription
drug legislation, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW)
sent the following open letter to the nation's elderly:
Dear Grandma and Grandpa:
I have good news and bad news. The good news, according to some in
Washington, is that Congress is about to pass a bill that will add a
prescription drug benefit to Medicare. The bad news is this bill fails
to reform Medicare, a program that is headed toward bankruptcy. It may
take away prescription drug coverage that you and your friends already
have. Finally, it will stick your children and grandchildren with a
massive financial burden.
Since Medicare was passed with good
intentions in 1965, the program's costs have exploded out of control. At
that time, Medicare was predicted to cost $26 billion in 2003; the
actual cost is $245 billion. Even before the ink is dry on the new bill,
Congress has revised its cost prediction from $400 billion to around
$430 billion. Imagine what the cost will be 10 years from now! Since
there is already a $500 billion budget deficit predicted for this year,
the only way to pay for the new benefit is to borrow that $430 billion,
which transfers the costs onto your children and grandchildren.
Medicare's unfunded liability currently hovers around $40 trillion.
Today's politicians are raiding the paychecks of the unborn to impress
senior citizens before the 2004 elections.
The fiscal damage could be reduced and
the effectiveness of the drug benefit improved if coverage was targeted
at low income seniors. In fact, only 11 percent of the $430 billion will
go to seniors who actually need the money. The rest will replace money
now being spent by state governments, employers, Medigap, and seniors
themselves.
Even worse, the one-third of your
fellow retirees who receive drug benefits through their former
employer's private systems could lose that coverage. Of that number 37
percent, or four million seniors, will lose their benefits, pay 60
percent more out-of-pocket, and be herded into Medicare's mismanaged
system.
The so-called cost containment
provisions will do little to block the tsunami of debt that will engulf
the country. The 28 percent subsidy to employers for retiree drug
coverage will not stop companies from cutting benefits in a competitive
economy. Premium support, which would have forced the traditional
Medicare program to compete with private health plans, was scaled back
to a pilot program, which is doomed to failure.
Politicians are leading us into a
fool's paradise. At a time when Congress should be making fundamental
changes to the Medicare program, they have added a universal benefit
that will disrupt existing coverage, causing Medicare to collapse under
its own weight, while passing the cost on to future generations.
Have a nice day anyway.
The Council for Citizens Against
Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government
Waste, the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization
dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in
government.
Source: Council
for Citizens Against Government Waste