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Medicare Privatization Plans - by Stephen Lendman
Bipartisan agreement on eroding, privatizing and eventually ending Medicare.
The idea's been around for years. More recently, bipartisan support's been growing. Various plans have circulated.
A 2006 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study assessed "Designing a Premium Support System (PSS) for Medicare." It discussed pros, cons, other choices and implications in terms of costs and recipient benefits.
In 1995, Henry Aaron and Robert Reischauer first proposed PSS based on managed competition principles. Numerous variations followed with differing public support amounts.
All plans have six common features:
(1) Beneficiaries would choose from multiple approved health plans. Risk adjusted payments and marketing practices would be regulated, or so it's claimed.
(2) Plans would offer a premium bid to cover core benefits.
(3) Federal payments would reflect these bids, subject to negotiations.
(4) Washington would provide beneficiaries a fixed premium subsidy tied to annual health plan bids.
(5) They'd vary depending on plans selected. Beneficiaries would pay differential costs.
(6) Traditional Medicare would compete on similar terms with private plans, including on price.
A March 1999, Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare approved a premium support plan proposed by then-Commission chairman Senator John Breaux.
Though it failed to get a supermajority needed for official recommendation to Congress, it gained widespread support and became a prominent option in subsequent Medicare reform debates.
Proponents claim it relies on marketplace medicine to secure sustainability long-term. They falsely say Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security cause rising deficits and America's national debt burden.
They also bogusly claim Medicare and Social Security are going broke. When properly administered, in fact, both programs are sustainable long-term with modest adjustments and by curtailing escalating healthcare costs responsibly.
