Dec 10 2009
The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today
expressed disdain at last evening’s theatrical announcement by Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that five Democratic moderates and
five Democratic liberals in the Senate had come to some sort of
behind-closed-doors breakthrough moment on the $898 billion Senate
healthcare bill. As usual, no pertinent details were offered by Leader
Reid, only a vague wave of the imperial hand and an assurance that the
group had moved the bill substantially down the road. These new
proposals have been sent to the Congressional Budget Office for scoring.
News reports today indicate that the agreement reached by this
ten-member Democratic rump group has eliminated the government-run
healthcare option, one of the most contentious aspects of the
deliberations. Instead, Democrats now favor expansions of both Medicare
and Medicaid, both government-run healthcare programs, as well as an
expansion of the role of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
According to Politico, “The Democrats are considering including a
‘trigger’ that would allow a public plan to kick in – but only in the
event that private insurers didn’t step up and offer policies for the
new national health insurance plan, which seemed unlikely.” OPM’s new
mission would presumably be to certify that the private insurance
companies’ plans meet federal guidelines on what constitutes a qualified
health insurance plan.
The agreement apparently also envisions an expansion of Medicare
benefits to those between the ages of 55 to 64, which could mean as many
as 3 million new people added to the Medicare rolls at a time when the
program is already on a glide path to insolvency. Sen. Jay Rockefeller
(D-W.Va) told NPR this morning that “I like Medicare buy in a whole lot.
I’ve been dreaming about that since 2001.” Earlier discussions of
increasing income eligibility for Medicaid to 150 percent of poverty ran
into resistance from state governors, the American Medical Association,
the American Hospital Association, and other members of Congress.
“When a senator says he’s been dreaming about a huge increase in
Medicare enrollment, that is a nightmare for taxpayers,” said CCAGW
President Tom Schatz, “Medicare will be broke in eight years, there is
$47 billion in improper payments in the program; yet the ‘compromise’ is
to expand eligibility. There is no money to pay for this new
entitlement. Whatever they concoct as a formula will result in more
money coming out of the paychecks of younger workers, adding to their
economic woes.”
SOURCE Council for Citizens Against Government Waste