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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated
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To: Murrey Walker who wrote (214052)8/1/2007 9:09:31 AM
From: Lane3  Read Replies (1) of 793868
 
Karen, did you not read KLP's response to the free medicare question you refer to?

I did, but not until after I posted.

I'm in the process of enrolling in Medicare, and the word free is nowhere to be found.

I will be doing that in a few months, too. Coverage starts in January. Not looking forward to it. I'm particularly annoyed that I will probably have to pay a premium for Part B if I take it. I didn't realize that everyone no longer pays the same amount regardless of income. They went to graduated payments this year. Anyway, I understand that there are still costs for Medicare patients, as Karen said. I will have to continue paying the same amount for my federal Blue Cross as I am now despite the fact that Medicare will become the primary payer and Blue Cross will just pick up some of the residue. And, like I said, I'm considering adding Part B. None of that changes the fact that Medicare Part A insurance is, indeed, free to the tune of about $7K per year.

Enough of the clientelist perspective and onto the public policy perspective.

I have not been able to find any information about the considerations regarding Medicare. I was able to find only one source that even made a brief statement that Medicare was outside the proposed program. So I'd only be guessing about the basis for that determination. One possibility would be that, whatever insurance premiums Medicare patients must pay, they wouldn't exceed the value of the free part so it wouldn't matter tax wise for very many people. Or it could be that they just don't want to stir up the old folks. Or it could be that the initiative was intentionally addressing only part of the health care problem. I read somewhere in the last week or so that Bush's idea of health care reform is that the government takes care of kids and old folks and that the folks in between buy insurance. So it fits that this tax proposal addresses only that latter group.
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