9/26/11
9/24/11
Public Health Care Programs Kept Millions From Becoming Uninsured
Public Health Care Programs Kept Millions From Becoming Uninsured: pFor all of the GOP’s efforts to demonize and underfund public health care programs, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Medicare have played an absolutely crucial role in filling the gaps in America’s very broken health care system. They’ve kept millions of people from becoming uninsured and have helped “offset the continuing decline [...]/p
Expanded Coverage, Better Patient Protections Mark First Year Of The Patient’s Bill Of Rights
Expanded Coverage, Better Patient Protections Mark First Year Of The Patient’s Bill Of Rights: pToday marks one year since the Affordable Care Act’s Patient’s Bill of Rights went into effect. The White House unveiled the regulations in 2010 to expand coverage and better control costs for patients before the full health care reform law goes into effect in 2014. And so far, people are seeing a difference, according to [...]/p
9/20/11
CHART: Where Obama’s Health Savings Come From
CHART: Where Obama’s Health Savings Come From: pThe bulk of the $320 billion in health care savings in President Obama’s new deficit plan come from the pharmaceutical industry and other providers, including rural hospitals, teaching hospitals, and biotechnology firms. Beginning in 2017, some Medicare beneficiaries will also pay more for coverage: individual seniors with a Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) of more [...]/p
Health Care Spending: It’s The High Prices
Health Care Spending: It’s The High Prices: pThe American political system is oddly resistant to this conclusion, but via Uwe Reinhardt here’s another study, this time from Miriam Laugesen and Sherry Glied, showing that America’s health care spending is so high largely because we pay such high per unit costs: Higher health care prices in the United States are a crucial reason [...]/p
Three Years After The Financial Crash, GOP Candidates Revive Desire To Privatize Social Security
Three Years After The Financial Crash, GOP Candidates Revive Desire To Privatize Social Security: pSince jumping in the race, GOP presidential front runner Gov. Rick Perry’s (TX) radical views on Social Security have garnered the most attention. And for good reason, as Perry lands far to the right of even his most right-wing opponents in calling the entitlement program a unconstitutional “Ponzi scheme.” A fan of secession, Perry even [...]/p
9/19/11
Obama’s Deficit Plan Calls For $248 Billion In Medicare Savings, Changing ‘The Way We Pay For Health Care’
Obama’s Deficit Plan Calls For $248 Billion In Medicare Savings, Changing ‘The Way We Pay For Health Care’: pAs Matt Yglesias points out, the big health care news in President Obma’s deficit plan is his willingness to put a line in the sand against cutting Medicare benefits without raising new revenue. But just as important is Obama’s commitment to reduce federal health care spending by modernizing the health care system — changing the [...]/p
Medicare, Health Reform A Mystery To A Majority Of Seniors
Medicare, Health Reform A Mystery To A Majority Of Seniors: pA majority of seniors do not understand Medicare, according to a survey by the National Council on Aging and UnitedHealthcare. In the confusion, many seniors are missing out on immense savings. Two-thirds of eligible seniors are unaware of the Extra Help program and the Medicare Savings Programs, for instance, which helps low-income seniors with insurance [...]/p
9/18/11
Paul Ryan Calls For Increasing Taxes On Middle Class But Dismisses Millionaires Tax As ‘Class Warfare’
Paul Ryan Calls For Increasing Taxes On Middle Class But Dismisses Millionaires Tax As ‘Class Warfare’: pRep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) resumed his attacks on President Obama’s economic policy Sunday morning, suggesting that the President’s plan to tax millionaires’ profits from capital gains in order to fund job creation efforts constitutes “class warfare”: RYAN: It adds further instability to our system — more uncertainty — and it punishes job creation and those people who [...]/p
9/17/11
Fatally Ill Woman Would Have Gone Bankrupt Without Protections Of Affordable Care Act
Fatally Ill Woman Would Have Gone Bankrupt Without Protections Of Affordable Care Act: pRoss Daniels, whose wife developed rare fungal infection that left her in rehab for days and almost killed her, speaks to the Des Moines Register about “what would have happened if portions of the new federal health care law had not been in place“: “His wife’s insurance had a million dollar lifetime cap on benefits. [...]/p
9/16/11
Defying GOP’s Doomsday Predictions, Medicare Advantage Enrollment Increases, Premiums Fall
Defying GOP’s Doomsday Predictions, Medicare Advantage Enrollment Increases, Premiums Fall: pAverage Medicare Advantage premiums will decrease by 4 percent in 2012 and enrollment in the program will grow by 10 percent, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today, undermining Republican claims that reductions in government payments to private insurers will devastate the program. Plan enrollment is “the highest overall enrollment of beneficiaries [...]/p
You Don’t Make Social Security More Solvent By Eliminating Its Funding Base
You Don’t Make Social Security More Solvent By Eliminating Its Funding Base: pTelevision hosts who like to ask Republican Party members politically charges questions about Social Security (you know who you are) really ought to take 10-20 minutes to think about how Social Security works, so that when faced with a superficially plausible answer, you can evaluate whether or not it actually makes any sense. So to [...]/p
Report: What Happens If The Tea Party Wins
Report: What Happens If The Tea Party Wins: pBefore President Obama entered the White House, there was a widespread consensus — even among leading conservatives — that the Constitution leaves most decisions to We the People and the leaders we elect. The election of a center-left president eager to move the nation in a progressive direction, however, killed many conservatives’ belief that democracy [...]/p
Say goodbye to Medicare and Social Security.
Say goodbye to Medicare and Social Security.
9/14/11
Privatized Social Security System Cited By GOP Candidates Works For The Rich, But Is ‘Very Bad’ For Everyone Else
Privatized Social Security System Cited By GOP Candidates Works For The Rich, But Is ‘Very Bad’ For Everyone Else: pDuring Monday night’s GOP presidential primary debate, several the candidates called for privatizing Social Security, with former corporate CEO Herman Cain pointing to a system of privatized accounts for government employees that was implemented by Galveston, Texas. “In 1981, the Galveston County employees, they opted out because that was a very short window of opportunity. [...]/p
9/13/11
Perry’s ‘Ponzi Scheme’ Kept 14 Million Seniors Out Of Poverty Last Year
Perry’s ‘Ponzi Scheme’ Kept 14 Million Seniors Out Of Poverty Last Year: pDuring last night’s GOP presidential primary debate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry tried to walk a fine line between sticking to his characterization of Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme,” yet reassuring seniors that he doesn’t actually want to eliminate the program upon which so many of them depend. However, he ultimately fell back on the [...]/p
VIDEO: Rick Perry Calls Medicare And Social Security Unconstitutional
VIDEO: Rick Perry Calls Medicare And Social Security Unconstitutional: pAt last night’s CNN/Tea Party Republican presidential candidate’s debate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) repeatedly refused to answer whether he still believes that Social Security is unconstitutional, but Perry wasn’t always so shy. Just last December, Perry addressed a group of conservative lobbyists and state lawmakers at the American Legislative Exchange Council’s National Policy Summit, [...]/p
VIDEO: Protestors At Florida Tea Party Debate Defend Social Security Against GOP Attacks
VIDEO: Protestors At Florida Tea Party Debate Defend Social Security Against GOP Attacks: pThinkProgress filed this report from the Republican debate in Tampa, Florida. Before yesterday’s Republican presidential debate began, 75 to 100 Floridians gathered outside to protest the Tea Party’s goals and defend Social Security against constant GOP attacks. Ever since Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) entered the race last month, dismantling Social Security has been a [...]/p
9/12/11
Memo To Rick Perry: Social Security Is Not Facing ‘Dire Financial Challenges’
Memo To Rick Perry: Social Security Is Not Facing ‘Dire Financial Challenges’: p2012 GOP hopeful Texas Gov. Rick Perry today penned a USA Today op-ed on Social Security, clearly trying to lay to rest some of the controversy surrounding his deriding the program as a “monstrous lie” and a “Ponzi scheme” ahead of tonight’s Republican primary debate. Tellingly, nowhere in the op-ed do those words appear, nor [...]/p
Rick Perry continues to lie about Social Security.
Rick Perry continues to lie about Social Security.
9/10/11
9/9/11
9/8/11
Conservative Social Security Critics Have Been Insisting 'The End Is Near' For Decades
Conservative Social Security Critics Have Been Insisting 'The End Is Near' For Decades
Which is a lie they keep telling so they can raid the Social Security fund.
Which is a lie they keep telling so they can raid the Social Security fund.
FLASHBACK: Mitt Romney Has Consistently Supported The Privatization Of Social Security
FLASHBACK: Mitt Romney Has Consistently Supported The Privatization Of Social Security: pFormer Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) set aside his front-running strategy at last night’s Republican presidential debate, attacking the race’s new front-runner, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, on a variety of issues, including Perry’s repeated assertions that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme” that won’t exist for younger Americans. In his 2009 book, Perry also questioned [...]/p
Health Reform Benefits: 18.9M Seniors Took Advantage Of Free Preventive Services, 1.3M Saved On Prescription Drugs
Health Reform Benefits: 18.9M Seniors Took Advantage Of Free Preventive Services, 1.3M Saved On Prescription Drugs: pNew data from the Department of Health and Human Services finds that thanks to the Affordable Care Act, more than 18.9 million seniors in Medicare have taken advantage of free preventive services and nearly 1.3 million “have received a 50 percent discount on their brand name prescription drugs when they hit the donut hole, saving [...]/p
Health Care Reform = Jobs
Health Care Reform = Jobs: p“Since Massachusetts enacted the Health Care Reform Plan in early 2006, total health care employment per capita in the state has grown more rapidly than that in the rest of the country,” new research in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes. “From January 2001 to December 2005, employment per capita grew by just over [...]/p
9/7/11
Missouri GOP Wants To Raise Taxes On 100,000 Seniors And Disabled Citizens To Pay For Corporate Tax Break
Missouri GOP Wants To Raise Taxes On 100,000 Seniors And Disabled Citizens To Pay For Corporate Tax Break: pYesterday, Missouri lawmakers began a special session during which Republicans will try to pay for a business tax cut by eliminating a tax credit that benefits more than 100,000 senior citizens and disabled people. Missouri Republicans are just the latest in a long list of state legislatures that are funding more corporate tax breaks on [...]/p
Rep. Joe Walsh Calls For Shrinking Medicare Down To An Insurer Of Last Resort
Rep. Joe Walsh Calls For Shrinking Medicare Down To An Insurer Of Last Resort: pRep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) — a strong proponent of Paul Ryan’s Medicare privatization scheme — told students at Mundelein High School on Tuesday that he would support transforming Medicare into a “safety net” program of last resort for seniors with no other coverage options: But he spent the most time talking about the need to [...]/p
9/6/11
Romney’s Medicare Plan: It Will Be Similar, But Different From Paul Ryan’s Privatization Scheme
Romney’s Medicare Plan: It Will Be Similar, But Different From Paul Ryan’s Privatization Scheme: pMitt Romney unveiled his economic policy today and in case you’re wondering his position on Medicare reform is this: he’ll propose something that’s similar but different from Paul Ryan’s Medicare privatization scheme. ‘Medicare’ — one of the single biggest drivers of government spending — is mentioned just twice in the 88-page report: Any serious attempt [...]/p
9/1/11
Huntsman Proposes New Taxes On Seniors And Veterans To Pay For Tax Cut For The Richest 0.1 Percent
Huntsman Proposes New Taxes On Seniors And Veterans To Pay For Tax Cut For The Richest 0.1 Percent: pOur guest blogger is Seth Hanlon, director of Fiscal Reform for the Doing What Works project at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. 2012 GOP presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman is releasing an economic plan today that is as bad for the middle-class — and as nutty — as any proposed by his rivals. It [...]/p
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