(For more on the national implications of health care reform on United States Medicare, and information on other Medicare issues, see theabcsofmedicare blog here.)
The good news for Massachusetts seniors is that Part B premiums will not increase in 2015. They have been the same for a few years. If you are in your 70s or 80s, thank the next baby boomer you meet at the senior center.
The bad news is that the far left wingers at the The Boston Globe and elsewhere are politicizing something that is likely totally tied to demographics but possibly tied to the work of George W. Bush and a Republican Congress over a decade ago.
This October 10 story in the Globe is not the most inaccurate story about Medicare that I have ever seen in the paper but there are multiple incorrect or misleading statements. In the three worst progaganda sentences, the Globe says
- “Medicare… costs-per-beneficiary have barely risen the past four years. That is because of spending cuts by President Obama and Congress, as well as low inflation in health care.”
- Actually not even the Medicare actuaries can figure out the cause. The most likely causes are not mentioned in the article. It is probably a result of the relatively better health of the baby boomers entering the Medicare program (simply because we are younger, not because we are actually healthier than our parents) and possibly a result of Medicare reforms passed in 2003 by President Bush that went into effect in 2006. It is almost certainly not the draconian cuts to Medicare made by President Obama to pay for Obamacare because they have not really started yet but the downward trend in health costs has been going on for 8 years (that is, since Bush's Medicare reform).
- “Medicare’s hospital deductible will rise... But many people carry additional insurance to cover such costs.”
- Saying "many people carry additional insurance" is totally misleading. The lefties want you to think that a small fraction of the people on Original LBJ/Democratic-Party/”as we know it” Medicare decide to supplement it just for the hell of it or because they are stupid seniors. In fact, well over 90% of the people on Medicare (probably much higher in Massachusetts given our high healthcare costs) make additional supplemental arrangements because Original LBJ/Democratic-Party/”as we know it” Medicare is the worst insurance ever devised. Ask yourself how bad must a government program be that over 90% of the people for whom it is designed have to make other arrangements?
- “For the approximately 1,017,352 Massachusetts residents in Medicare Part B…premiums and deductibles will remain unchanged in 2015 at $104.90 and $147 respectively.”
- In other words, just about everyone on Medicare. Which is why I cannot imagine the purpose of publishing this precise yet immediately outdated number. Whatever, the number is wrong; they are not all paying $104.90.
- About 15% of the people on Medicare Part B pay nothing or a greatly reduced amount for their Part B
- Because of Obamacare -- about 10% of the people on Medicare pay 50% to 200% more than the rest of us pay in order to fund insurance for people not of Medicare age. This percentage is likely higher in Massachusetts because we are a higher income state (goes with the higher costs thankfully)
- About 5% of the people on Medicare -- the wealthiest (or highest income to be precise) -- have paid a lot more than the rest of us pay since around 2007. That extra money from the top 5% since 2007 is how the Bush administration and the 2003 Congress funded Part D, you know the Medicare drug program that the Democrats always claim was/is “unfunded” and that the Democrats have tried to repeal for the last 12 years.