Increasing the Cost of Health Care for Medicare Participants

Medicare Participants costs under the current President's just announced Tax Plan will increase  exponentially. For example:

Introduce a Part B premium surcharge for new beneficiaries that purchase near first-dollar Medigap coverage. Medigap policies sold by private insurance companies provide beneficiaries additional support for covering healthcare costs by covering most or all of the cost sharing Medicare requires. This protection, however, gives individuals less incentive to consider the costs of health care services and thus raises Medicare costs and Part B premiums.

That is if I choose to buy a premium at my cost for better payment just in case, then the Government will tax me for the money I spent. It is akin to buying auto insurance and the Government saying that if I get a low deductible, no matter how good my driving record, it will add a surcharge tax on because I should not be allowed to hedge my risks. This is insane. The issue is usage not hedging your bets.

Modify Part B deductible for new beneficiaries. Beneficiaries who are enrolled in Medicare Part B are required to pay an annual deductible. This deductible helps to share responsibility for payment of Medicare services between Medicare and beneficiaries. To strengthen program financing and encourage beneficiaries to seek high-value health care services, the Administration proposes to apply a $25 increase in the Part B deductible in 2017, 2019, and 2021 for new beneficiaries.

This is just an increase in deductibles. It is in effect an added tax. Why not just say that outright!

Introduce home health co-payments for new beneficiaries. Medicare beneficiaries currently do not make co-payments for Medicare home health services. This proposal would create a home health copayment of $100 per home health episode, applicable for episodes with five or more visits not preceded by a hospital or other inpatient post-acute care stay. This would apply to new beneficiaries beginning in 2017.

The prior one increases deductibles and this increases co-payments. This is another tax.

Require prior authorization for advanced imaging. The rapid growth in the number and intensity of imaging services in recent years raises concerns about whether these services are being used appropriately. This proposal would adopt prior authorization for the most expensive imaging services, beginning in 2013, to ensure that these services are used as intended and protect the
Medicare program and its beneficiaries from unwarranted use.

Now this means we have that morbidly obese GS 9 in some office in DC deciding if we can have the MRI as we lay on a table with an undetermined stroke! And also that means that we are not allowed to pay for it ourselves, it must get approval from that half human character with the attitude. Your Government is here to help you!

Strengthen the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) to reduce longterm drivers of Medicare cost growth. Created by the ACA, IPAB has been highlighted by economists and health policy
experts as a key contributor to Medicare’s long term solvency. Under current law, if the projected Medicare per capita growth rate exceeds a predetermined target growth rate, IPAB recommends to the Congress policies to reduce the rate of Medicare growth to meet the target. IPAB  recommendations are prohibited from increasing beneficiary premiums or costsharing, or restricting benefits.

Remember the "Death Panels", well here it is again folks. The IPAB will be empowered to reject procedures with no recourse. Remember those left wing movies railing against the rich Insurance companies denying coverage, well it will now be your very own Government doing so.

And the list goes on. One would have thought this was written by someone to the right of Ron Paul, but no, it is the current Administration. This knocks another $500 billion or so from Medicare, on top of everything else.

Now it is not that we are against restructuring Medicare. We are indeed. But this is not that, this is disemboweling Medicare. What should be done is increasing the age, increasing the Medicare tax from 3% to 4%, and making some minor means adjustments, calculated on a year by year basis. Should we also change deductibles, yes a bit. Certain procedures should be dis-incented by reducing the amount compensated, but allowing individual choice. However the idea of taxing people for exercising their economic right to hedge against a risk is not just a socialistic nightmare it become a communistic form of economic rights control.