Pennsylvania Republicans Pressure Their Governor To Accept Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion

Pennsylvania Republicans Pressure Their Governor To Accept Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion: Now that the Republican governors in Ohio and New Jersey have both announced their support for expanding their states’ Medicaid programs under Obamacare — joining Democratic-led New York and Maryland — Pennsylvania is surrounded. Gov. Tom Corbett (R) has resisted cooperating with this Obamacare provision so far. But now, members of his own party are [...]/p

GOP Senators: We’ll Hold Up Treasury Nominee Unless Obama Makes Medicare Cuts That He’s Already Made

GOP Senators: We’ll Hold Up Treasury Nominee Unless Obama Makes Medicare Cuts That He’s Already Made: In a letter sent to the White House on Tuesday, 22 Republican senators are demanding that President Obama propose Medicare cuts before the chamber considers Treasury Secretary nominee Jack Lew. The letter is part of an ongoing GOP smear campaign against Lew alleging that, during his tenure as director of the Office of Management and [...]/p

How Hospital Bills Are Killing Americans

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Meet the Wall Street Billionaire Obsessed With Looting Social Security | Alternet

Meet the Wall Street Billionaire Obsessed With Looting Social Security | Alternet
"Now Peterson wants to loot Social Security. For decades he has warned of a “Pearl Harbor scenario” in which spending on Social Security and Medicare causes an epic economic meltdown. Fix the Debt is only his latest project pushing the message that the deficit poses a “catastrophic threat,” and the media have been content to echo his warnings. But people should know better than to be frightened by this chorus of calamity. Peterson is no master of prediction when it comes to economic crises. When an actual threat to the economy—the $8 trillion housing bubble—loomed ominously overhead, Peterson said nothing, even as credit markets froze, subprime lenders filed for bankruptcy and economists like Dean Baker shouted from the rooftops."

Medicare Fraud

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Medicare’s Projected Spending Has Dropped $500 Billion Without Lawmakers Cutting A Dime

Medicare’s Projected Spending Has Dropped $500 Billion Without Lawmakers Cutting A Dime: Medicare will spend $511 billion less between now and 2020 than was predicted two and a half years ago, according to the latest number crunching by the Center On Budget and Policy Priorities. More importantly, this drop occurred completely separate from any changes in government policy — rather, it resulted from an overall slowdown in [...]/p

Wall Street’s Misdeeds Cost Trillions, But It’s Main Street Who’s Getting Nickel-and-Dimed | Common Dreams

Wall Street’s Misdeeds Cost Trillions, But It’s Main Street Who’s Getting Nickel-and-Dimed | Common Dreams
"And as Washington argues about whether it should spend millions to save Main Street’s resiidents trillions, both parties are reportedly open to a budget agreement that would cut $130 billion in Social Security benefits for the elderly and disabled over the next ten years (according to White House estimates). In Washington that’s an acceptable “buy-partisan” solution.

But, especially for the Republicans, it isn’t acceptable to ask the bankers who cost Americans trillions of dollars – and walked away wealthy – to spend millions to prevent another trillion-dollar crisis."

Strengthening Social Security for all | Economic Policy Institute

Strengthening Social Security for all | Economic Policy Institute
"Americans need Social Security more than ever, and they’re willing to pay for it. Rather than more cuts, we need higher benefits across the board."

McDonough Pushes Back at Gregory's Assertion That Retirement Age Needs to be Raised

McDonough Pushes Back at Gregory's Assertion That Retirement Age Needs to be Raised
"Once again, David Gregory remained true to form, where he can't seem to manage to make it though an interview without askinghow much pain can be inflicted on the working class."

11 GOP Governors Still Need To Decide Whether Or Not To Deny Health Care To Low-Income Americans

11 GOP Governors Still Need To Decide Whether Or Not To Deny Health Care To Low-Income Americans: Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) announced on Wednesday that he will turn down Obamacare’s optional expansion of the Medicaid program, which makes him the thirteenth Republican leader to refuse to extend public health insurance to additional low-income Americans. Six GOP governors — in Arizona, Michigan, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio and Nevada — have expressed support [...]/p

Faith Communities, Hospital Groups, And Business Leaders All Urge Texas Governor To Expand Medicaid

Faith Communities, Hospital Groups, And Business Leaders All Urge Texas Governor To Expand Medicaid: Despite the fact that more than 25 percent of Texas’ population is uninsured, Gov. Rick Perry (R) has rejected Obamacare’s optional expansion of the Medicaid program, a move that will deny health coverage to more than 133,000 low-income Texans. In order to pressure him to change his mind, a diverse coalition of community leaders in [...]/p

The Justice Department Gets Back $8 For Every Dollar It Spends On Health Care Fraud Investigations

The Justice Department Gets Back $8 For Every Dollar It Spends On Health Care Fraud Investigations: In yet another victory against medical fraudsters, federal officials running the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Program have been getting an average of $7.90 in returns for every dollar spent on health care fraud investigations — an all-time record. As the Huffington Post reports, “the Justice Department opened more than 1,100 criminal health care fraud [...]/p

White House: Raising Medicare Eligibility Age Is Off The Table

White House: Raising Medicare Eligibility Age Is Off The Table: The Obama administration has ruled out raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 as a means of reducing spending, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney announced during a briefing on Monday. The measure — which the President floated as part of a larger deal to reduce the deficit in 2011 — is widely [...]/p

Increasing Social Security Benefits: An Idea Whose Time Has Come | Common Dreams

Increasing Social Security Benefits: An Idea Whose Time Has Come | Common Dreams
"Archaeologists of the future will sift through our newspapers, websites, and other ephemera and marvel at the inverted shape of our political debate. They’ll be particularly surprised to discover that, at a time when retirement security was being destroyed for an entire generation, politicians were posturing over how to make the problem even worse by cutting Social Security. The concept of increasing Social Security has been around for a while. Strengthen Social Security, a coalition of 320 groups, reviewed the program’s ability to meet current and future needs and concluded that benefits should be increased rather than cut. 

And they’ll marvel over how long it took us to agree on the right solution: Increasing Social Security benefits instead."

Affordable Care Act’s ‘donut hole’ fix saves seniors $5.7 billion

Affordable Care Act’s ‘donut hole’ fix saves seniors $5.7 billion (via Raw Story )

The Affordable Care Act’s prescription for the so-called “donut hole” in Medicare Part D has saved America’s disabled and elderly $5.7 billion on prescription drugs since being implemented, according to a report published Thursday (PDF) by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The patch…

Senator Bernie Sanders Talks Corporate Tax Cheats And Discusses The Corporate Tax Fairness Act

Baby Boomers Take Huge Hit On 401k Plans. Now What?

Baby Boomers Take Huge Hit On 401k Plans. Now What?
"The current generation of soon-to-be retiring baby boomers is screwed. Between health care costs eating through retirement savings, the housing crash, and the likelihood that many of us who lost jobs in 2008 probably won't ever find one again, we're the biggest victims of Reagan 'trickle-down' theories."

Private Medicare Plans Drive Up Health Care Costs By Offering Insufficient Coverage

Private Medicare Plans Drive Up Health Care Costs By Offering Insufficient Coverage: Two separate reports by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Health Affairs builds upon earlier research to conclude that private insurance plans under the Medicare Advantage program drive up Medicare spending. Ultimately, those private plans raise health care costs by encouraging seniors to cherry pick their health plans respective to their health, [...]/p

Rebuking Austerity, Americans Say: Strengthen Social Security | Common Dreams

Rebuking Austerity, Americans Say: Strengthen Social Security | Common Dreams
"While recent proposals from lawmakers and corporate CEO 'extremists' have put Social Security benefits on the chopping block, Americans are coming out in strong support of the vital program. They are saying: Preserve it.  Fund it.  Strengthen it.  Raise our taxes for it."

High Health Care Costs Bankrupt One In Four American Seniors

High Health Care Costs Bankrupt One In Four American Seniors: According to a new study released by the Journal of General Internal Medicine, out-of-pocket medical spending in the last five years of life left one in four American seniors bankrupt. The study found that average “out-of-pocket expenditures in the 5 years prior to death were $38,688 for individuals, and $51,030 for couples in which one [...]/p