fall 2007

Message from the Chair

Stop the privatization of Medicare; you need to get involved

by Tom Pappas, RTC Chapter Leader

Two great government-assisted programs, Social Security and Medicare Part B, which have provided safety nets for seniors since their inception, have been prime targets for elimination on the neocon agenda.

Social Security, which provides a defined benefit — a monthly allowance — and Medicare Part B, which offers doctor services, are the top targets of the Bush Administration to be privatized and basically ended.

So far, we have been successful with containing the privatization or setting up of “personal accounts” for Social Security. But Medicare Part B is another matter!

When Medicare Part C was set up it was called Medicare + Choice, or Part C plans. Private insurers convinced the government that the marketplace would allow competition and bring lower administrative costs than traditional Medicare Part B. That did not happen. These private for-profit plans were basically closing down until the Bush administration pushed through the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA). Remember the drug plan with the gap? In a mighty propaganda move the administration changed the name to Medicare Advantage.

The MMA made it worthwhile for private insurers to stay in the game. The government now gives 12 percent to 19 percent — in some cases 50 percent — to these for-profit plans. At the same time, traditional Medicare Part B has suffered severe cuts and more so in every Bush budget plan.

We are not lobbying for elimination of Medicare Advantage (the disadvantage to traditional Medicare) but we are making a fight to level the playing field and to stop the cuts to Medicare Part B and overpayments to Medicare Part C.

Please read our petition and be prepared to help yourself, your children and your grandchildren by taking an active role in the effort to stop the privatization of Medicare. Please download the petition, sign it and return it to us, then also dowload the Medicare Campaign coupon, fill it out and return it to us, as well. Thank you.