AP: The Affordable Care Act Shrinks The “ Doughnut Hole“ By 40 Percent

AP: The Affordable Care Act Shrinks The “ Doughnut Hole“ By 40 Percent

Affordable Care Act Lowering Prescription Drug Costs For Seniors

Affordable Care Act Lowering Prescription Drug Costs For Seniors: pSeniors — the demographic most skeptical about health care reform — are already benefiting from provisions in the Affordable Care Act, the Associate Press’ Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar reports, as the law gradually closes the doughnut hole in Medicare Part D. The coverage gap is the result of a political compromise in the Medicare Modernization Act of [...]/p

United States Still Number 1 … In Health Care Spending

United States Still Number 1 … In Health Care Spending: pA new Health at a Glance 2011 report finds — to nobody’s great surprise — that the United States is leading the world in health care costs, spending some $7,960 per person in 2009 or 2.5 times the average of the 34 other countries studied: The report attributes the difference to higher than average prices [...]/p

GOP Super Committee Co-Chair: Lawmakers Failed Because Democrats Refused To Privatize Medicare

GOP Super Committee Co-Chair: Lawmakers Failed Because Democrats Refused To Privatize Medicare: pRep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) faults the Democrats’ refusal to accept partial Medicare privatization for the super committee’s inability to come up with a bipartisan plan to lower spending in today’s Wall Street Journal. He writes, “Democrats on the committee made it clear that the new spending called for in the president’s health law was off [...]/p

Poll: Tea Party Voters Oppose Cuts To Medicare, Social Security

Poll: Tea Party Voters Oppose Cuts To Medicare, Social Security: pA new McClatchy-Marist Institute for Public Opinion poll shows 81 percent of voters oppose major cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The poll, which tests voters’ opinions of deficit cutting policies being considered by the super committee, found overwhelming opposition to such cuts within each demographic. Even supposedly anti-government Tea Party supporters opposed the cuts [...]/p

Too bad they voted for people who plan to destroy it.

Report: Health Reform Could Save Families $2,161 Annually By 2020

Report: Health Reform Could Save Families $2,161 Annually By 2020: pHealth insurance premiums for employer-sponsored coverage increased by 50 percent from 2003 to 2010 and will “rise 72 percent by 2020, to nearly $24,000″ if Congress repeals the Affordable Care Act, a new report from the Commonwealth Fund concludes. Over the last seven years, premiums outpaced income growth in every state, as employees contributed an [...]/p

Rep. Jeb Hensarling to Super Congress Democrats: Privatize Medicare, then we'll talk

Rep. Jeb Hensarling to Super Congress Democrats: Privatize Medicare, then we'll talk

The myth of early retirement | Economic Policy Institute

The myth of early retirement | Economic Policy Institute

Ain't That A Shame: Pat Boone And 60 Plus Attack Sen. Sherrod Brown With Recycled Health Care Lies

Ain't That A Shame: Pat Boone And 60 Plus Attack Sen. Sherrod Brown With Recycled Health Care Lies

PERRspectives: Romney Pushes Privatization of Medicare, Veterans' Health

PERRspectives: Romney Pushes Privatization of Medicare, Veterans' Health

Sick in U.S. More Likely to Skip Care Than Elsewhere | Common Dreams

Sick in U.S. More Likely to Skip Care Than Elsewhere | Common Dreams

Four Problems In Mitt Romney’s Medicare Proposal

Four Problems In Mitt Romney’s Medicare Proposal: pThe Huffington Post’s Jon Ward has an interesting piece about Romney’s successful roll-out of his plan to partially privatize the Medicare program for future enrollees. Romney — who had leaked aspects of the proposal during interviews — met with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) before officially announcing his “premium support” proposal at the end of last [...]/p

Mitt Romney Promises to Raise Retirement Age, Privatize Medicare and Slash Government Jobs at Koch Brothers Event

Mitt Romney Promises to Raise Retirement Age, Privatize Medicare and Slash Government Jobs at Koch Brothers Event

THE RIGHT TO VOTE UNDER ATTACK: The Campaign to Keep Millions of Americans from the Ballot Box | People For the American Way

THE RIGHT TO VOTE UNDER ATTACK: The Campaign to Keep Millions of Americans from the Ballot Box | People For the American Way

No Country for Old People -- In These Times

No Country for Old People -- In These Times

Forbes on Fox Panelists Push for Social Security Privatization

Forbes on Fox Panelists Push for Social Security Privatization

Boehner looks for deeper Medicaid cuts, ignoring Medicaid realities

Boehner looks for deeper Medicaid cuts, ignoring Medicaid realities

States Cut Medicaid As Federal Stimulus Dollars Dry Up

States Cut Medicaid As Federal Stimulus Dollars Dry Up: pWith federal money drying up for Medicaid, states are shouldering a greater cost burden and making significant cuts to balance their budgets — just as the economic downturn is expanding the pool of eligible applicants. Since federal stimulus money ran out in June, states have spent 28.7 percent more this year on their Medicaid programs [...]/p

Lessons From The Single-Payer State -- In These Times

Lessons From The Single-Payer State -- In These Times

Perry Ditches Idea That Social Security Is Unconstitutional, Adopts Privatization Plan The Public Already Rejected

Perry Ditches Idea That Social Security Is Unconstitutional, Adopts Privatization Plan The Public Already Rejected: pTexas Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) views on Social Security have been well-chronicled since he jumped into the Republican presidential primary in July. In the past, Perry has called Social Security unconstitutional and a Ponzi scheme, and in his first debate appearance, he called it a “monstrous lie.” Perry’s assertions were obviously incorrect, and he drew [...]/p

Why Mitt Romney’s Medicaid Cuts Are Even More Draconian Than Paul Ryan’s

Why Mitt Romney’s Medicaid Cuts Are Even More Draconian Than Paul Ryan’s: pMedicaid, which is funded jointly by the states and the federal government, provides health coverage to approximately 53 million lower income Americans. The federal government matches state spending on a per-claim basis and pays a percentage of each state’s Medicaid costs (anywhere between 50 and 75 percent). Conservatives like House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan and [...]/p

First they came for your pensions...

First they came for your pensions...

Herman Cain Compares Social Security To Slavery

Herman Cain Compares Social Security To Slavery: pWhen it comes to Social Security, the pugilistic presidential contender Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) is normally the one attracting all the attention. After all, he called the program all sorts of names: A “Ponzi scheme,” a “monstrous lie,” and unconstitutional. But the new GOP front runner — pizza mogul Herman Cain — seems eager to [...]/p

Medicare Costs Could Wipe Out Social Security Cost-Of-Living Adjustment

Medicare Costs Could Wipe Out Social Security Cost-Of-Living Adjustment: pNext year, Social Security recipients will see a 3.6 percent increase in benefits, the first cost-of-living adjustment since 2009. Starting in January, the 55 million Social Security recipients will see their monthly payment grow by $43, or about $516 for the year. But increases in Medicare Part B premiums, which must pay for 25 percent [...]/p

Romney adopts Ryan budget, Medicare vouchers, Social Security cuts

Romney adopts Ryan budget, Medicare vouchers, Social Security cuts

Romney Offers More Details On Medicare Plan: ‘We’re Going To Give People Vouchers’

Romney Offers More Details On Medicare Plan: ‘We’re Going To Give People Vouchers’: pMitt Romney has praised Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) plan to privatize Medicare for future enrollees as making “important strides in the right direction” and promised that his own proposal “will differ” but “share those objectives.” During a discussion with the editorial board of the Las Vegas Review Journal earlier this week, Romney revealed that he [...]/p

Single-Payer National Health Insurance | Physicians for a National Health Program

Single-Payer National Health Insurance | Physicians for a National Health Program

How Herman Cain’s Social Security Privatization Plan Would Cause The Nation’s Debt To Explode

How Herman Cain’s Social Security Privatization Plan Would Cause The Nation’s Debt To Explode: p2012 GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain — when he’s not mangling the details of his own 999 tax plan — has been singing the supposed benefits of “the Chilean model” of Social Security privatization. Using the right-wing buzzword “personalization,” (instead of “privatization”) Cain claims that this model will provide a better deal for workers. As [...]/p

Occupy Wall Street

Cut Waste Not Medicare

The Agreement

Why Privatizing the Golden Years Wouldn't Work | Truthout

Why Privatizing the Golden Years Wouldn't Work | Truthout

Health Insurers Fight To Hide Rate Increases From The Public

Health Insurers Fight To Hide Rate Increases From The Public: pHealth insurance companies planning sharp increases in premiums for their New York customers have submitted memos justifying their rate increases to state officials. However, they are fighting to keep those memos from the public, saying they contain trade secrets and that consumers wouldn’t be able to understand them. Benjamin Lawsky, the state superintendent of financial [...]/p

Super Congress eyes more cost-shifting to Medicare recipients with Medigap plans

Super Congress eyes more cost-shifting to Medicare recipients with Medigap plans

Why ‘Ryancare’ Is Far More Hostile To States Rights Than ‘Obamacare’

Why ‘Ryancare’ Is Far More Hostile To States Rights Than ‘Obamacare’: pYesterday, House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) predicted that the Supreme Court will embrace the meritless claim that the Affordable Care Act violates states rights and “knock down the individual mandate.” Yet, if there is one person who shouldn’t be hiding behind states rights arguments, it is Paul Ryan. The truth is that Ryan’s [...]/p

Rep. Rehberg: Eliminating Access To Health Insurance Is ‘Most Common Sense Path’ To Reduce The Deficit

Rep. Rehberg: Eliminating Access To Health Insurance Is ‘Most Common Sense Path’ To Reduce The Deficit: pRep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT) is encouraging the Super Committee to reduce the national deficit by eliminating access to health care for lower-income families and significantly increasing costs for families earning between $29,000 and $44,000 a year. In a letter to the committee, Rehberg singles out the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of the Medicaid program and [...]/p

Rep. King Dismisses Affordable Care Act’s Closing Of the Medicare Donut Hole: ‘It Isn’t A Significant Piece Of Policy’

Rep. King Dismisses Affordable Care Act’s Closing Of the Medicare Donut Hole: ‘It Isn’t A Significant Piece Of Policy’: pRep. Steve King (R-IA) dismissed a key accomplishment in the Affordable Care Act – elimination of the Medicare donut hole – today, calling it “a minor part of this whole picture” and not “a significant piece of policy.” King made the comments to ThinkProgress following a Republican press conference on Capitol Hill today. The Iowa [...]/p
Corrupt and dishonest Rep. Steve King