MAINE SENIOR REPORTMarch 6, 2006
An Information Service of theMaine Council of Senior Citizens –
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MORE TALK ABOUT
"UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE" AS A RIGHT
It's heartening to see the phrase "universal health care"
popping up regularly in political discourse lately. The goal of treating
health care as a right, not an expensive consumer product, prompted
eye-rolling in Washington even during the flush Clinton years. But
gradually the politicians have caught up with the American public on this
issue. Polls have long shown majority support for universal health care
(one ABC News/Washington Post poll showed that respondents preferred a
universal, government-provided system to the current employer-based system
by a 2-to-1 margin.
Could it be that addressing the basic human needs of the citizenry is
politically acceptable again? Someone tell President Bush.
For complete article>>>>
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0228-24.htm
COST OF MEDICARE
DRUG BENEFITS HIGHLY INFLATED
The Medicare prescription drug benefit provides a great
example of the small-government conservative hypocrisy in action. The
Republican Congress passed a Medicare drug bill that cost almost twice as
much as necessary. There were two reasons for the excess cost.
First, Congress required that the benefit be administered by private insurers, rather than just being added onto the traditional Medicare program. The administrative costs of Medicare are far lower than those of private insurers. Medicare doesn't have to engage in marketing, it doesn't have to pay multimillion-dollar salaries to top executives and it doesn't have to pay out dividends to shareholders. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the decision to have the program administered by private insurers added close to $5 billion a year to the cost of the program.
The second reason that the program costs more than necessary is that Congress prohibited Medicare from using its marketing power to bargain down prices charged by the pharmaceutical industry. As a result, Medicare is paying prices more than 60 percent higher than those paid by the Veterans Administration, the Canadian government, and other governments that bargain effectively with the drug industry.
For complete article>>>>
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0228-30.htm
BUSH HAS HEALTH
CARE "DEFORM" PLAN
What is being referred to by the White House as the
President's State of the Union Health Care Initiative is, even by the
standards of this administration, a truly nightmarish proposal.
Employing the administration's Orwellian flair for language, the President is pitching his plan as "health care reform."
The accurate term would actually be health care deform.
The President wants the federal government to begin treating contributions from major corporations to help cover the health insurance costs of their employees -- most of which were won through decades of organizing, struggle and bargaining by the unions that represent those employees -- as taxable income. In effect, workers who have quality coverage would be punished, as would the firms that provide that coverage.
The Bush plan's race-to-the-bottom approach to health care policy is being pitched as a way to encourage Americans who currently lack insurance coverage to go out and buy it -- and then to take advantage of an expanded tax deduction for individuals and families that purchase plans.
The problem, of course, while the Bush plan penalizes those who are
insured, it does not begin to provide enough support for those who lack
it.
For complete article>>>>
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0124-33.htm
HEALTH CARE
SPENDING MAY RISE TO ONE-FIFTH OF ALL U.S. EXPENDITURES
Health care is expected to account for $1 of every $5 spent in the
United States in another decade, according to the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Associated Press.
Today, the number is closer to $1 out of every $6. That means a rise
in out-of-pocket expenses, such as the co-pays for medicine, from about
$850 this year to about $1,400 in 2016, a 5.3 percent annual increase.
By the year 2016, annual spending on health care will total nearly $4
trillion, economists at CMS said in a report released on Wednesday.
FRIDAY ALERT
You can sign up for the ARA "Friday Alert" round-up of news
important to seniors at
http://www.retiredamericans.org/index.php?tg=articles&topics=87&new=0&newc=0&OV2034575091=
d182cf9fee5df3b44b1e1297184b1398
EXERCISE CAN HELP
PREVENT BREAST CANCER
The second massive study finding strenuous physical activity can help
women – even senior citizens – increase their resistance to invasive
breast cancer by more than 20 percent was published today in the Archives
of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Over 125,000
women were studied in the two research projects and included women up to
79 years of age.
Today's study says women who regularly engage in strenuous physical
activity may have a lower risk of developing both invasive breast cancer
and in situ (early-stage) breast cancer than women who do not.
For complete article>>>>
http://www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Fitness/2007/7-02-26-SecondMassive.htm
TEN IDEAS TO GET
SENIORS "MOVING"
Virtually every senior citizen – people age 65 and older – knows that
exercise is extremely beneficial in building and maintaining healthy
bodies and minds. Yet, most fail to do it. Just getting started may be the
biggest hurdle, but the medical director of the senior care facility
claiming to house more 90-year olds than any other, has ten easy steps
that he finds are working to get older people out of bed and moving.
For the most part, according to Dr. Smith, when older people lose their ability to do things on their own, it doesn't happen just because they have aged. More likely, it is because they have become inactive.
Older inactive adults lose ground in four areas that are important to
staying healthy and independent - endurance, strength, balance and
flexibility.
HERE ARE SMITH'S "TEN GET-OUT-OF-BED
EXERCISE TIPS TO LONGER LIVING."
1. Try; just showing up is half the battle.
2. Have an exercise buddy.
3. Start slow. It's the effort that counts.
4. Give yourself physical activity "homework assignments," and look for ways to build physical activity into your daily routine.
5. Think of exercise sessions as "appointments" that you must keep.
6. When you can't keep your "appointment," don't be too hard on yourself.
7. Keep a record of what you do and your progress. It's fun to chart victories.
8. If you stop exercising for several weeks and then return, start out at about half the effort you were putting into it when you stopped.
9. Wear supportive, comfortable shoes.
10. Build a routine around stretching, walking and strength training.
For complete article>>>>
http://www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Fitness/2007/7-02-12-TenIdeas.htm
U.S. WILL HAVE
ENOUGH MEDICAID BUCKS FOR 40 YEARS
A new study of future funding requirements for Medicaid
concludes that expected growth in government revenues is likely to be
large enough to sustain Medicaid spending increases over the next 40
years, while also allowing substantial real growth in spending for other
public services.
It is a less dire situation, the report says, than suggested by
"conventional wisdom." And, it is welcome news for millions of senior
citizens, who may need to rely on this health care program for the poor,
as their savings are depleted by long-term care.
The report by Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU) was written by Richard Kronick of the University of California, San Diego and David Rousseau of KCMU and published by the journal Health Affairs.
Unlike the annual examination of the long-term financial status of the
Medicare program via the Medicare Trustees’ report, there has been no
comparable careful look at long-term Medicaid spending and the
availability of government revenues to support it. This analysis fills
that gap by providing a detailed forecast, based on historical trends, of
projected spending over the next 40 years, 2005-2045, for Medicaid as
currently structured and comparing projected Medicaid spending to
projected overall health spending and federal and state revenue growth.
For complete article>>>>
http://www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Medicaid/2007/7-02-26-MedicaidSpending.htm
MOST SENIORS SEE
FAILURE IN IRAQ
Public support and confidence for the war in Iraq continues to decline
and it is senior citizens that are far more pessimistic about the
prospects than younger Americans, according to recent poll by the Pew
Research Center.
Overall, public opinion is divided over the prospects for Iraq, with just as many predicting success (47%) as failure (46%). This is a stark slide in optimism overall in recent months. In September, the prevailing view (by a 57% to 35%) margin, was that the U.S. would succeed in achieving its goals in Iraq.
Younger Americans express greater confidence about prospects for success in Iraq than do older people. A slim majority of those under age 50 (52%) predict success in Iraq, compared with just 36% of people age 65 and older.
This is a dramatic shift from January of last year, when a Harris Poll found senior citizens the most likely to think the Iraq war was going well.
For complete article>>>>
http://www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Politics/2007/7-02-20-SeniorCitizensLeast.htm
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AGREE TO STOP "PAY
OFFS" TO BLOCK GENERIC DRUGS
The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved legislation (S
316) that would prohibit brand-name pharmaceutical companies from paying
generic drug companies to delay market introduction of generic
competitors, CQ Today reports. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.),
chairman of the Senate's Special Committee on Aging, was approved by a
voice vote with no amendments.
The bill is aimed at settlements in patent disputes that increasingly
include agreements to delay generic competition in exchange for payments
from brand-name companies to generic drug makers -- a practice known as
exclusion payment settlements, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
For complete article>>>>
http://www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Politics/2007/7-02-17-Committee.htm
BUSH BUDGET "SAVES"
BY IGNORING INFLATION
President Bush has proposed taking $101.5 billion out of
the budget for Medicare and Medicaid. The secret for how this might happen
is the phrase, "Forget about inflation." At least that is what he is
saying to healthcare providers whose pay he does not want to increase with
inflation, and to the senior citizens facing Medicare premium increases as
their income hits certain levels. Currently, these levels for higher
premiums are set to increase with inflation, but if the Bush idea
prevails, they will be frozen and increasing numbers of senior will fall
over the edge as inflation pushes their incomes higher.
Most of Medicare and Medicaid Savings in Bush's FY 2008 Budget Proposal Come From Reducing Growth in Medicare Provider Payments
The "lion's share" of the Medicare and Medicaid savings over five years proposed in President Bush's fiscal year 2008 budget proposal comes from limits on annual inflation adjustments for reimbursements to hospitals, nursing homes and other health care providers for Medicare, amounting to $39.5 billion, CQ HealthBeat reports (Reichard [1], CQ HealthBeat, 2/5).
For complete article>>>>
http://www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Politics/2007/7-02-08-MagicPhrase.htm
BUSH SILENT ON
CHILDREN'S HEALTH CARE CUTS
President Bush encouraged governors Monday to support his
call for changing the tax code to help more people buy private health care
insurance, but did not address their pleas to increase funding for a
health care program that insures millions of children of the working poor.
Still, governors said they heard words of at least partial compromise from the administration on a budget dispute that dominated private discussions among governors Sunday.
At stake is coverage for 6 million people, overwhelmingly children, as well as the hopes of many governors in tackling the larger challenge of the uninsured. All governors rely on the State Children's Health Insurance Program, intended to aid uninsured working families.
.
The governors want two things:
_Enough money to keep the program afloat through October. That is estimated at $745 million.
_Changes to Bush's budget. Analysts say his spending plan would shortchange the health program even if the number of people served did not grow. The long-term shortfall is put at $10 billion to $15 billion over the next five years.
Gov. Jon Corzine, a New Jersey Democrat, warned that the administration's budget promised illusory savings. "You end up paying for this in other ways — uncompensated care, emergency rooms," Corzine said. "This is pay me now or pay me later."
For complete article>>>>
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/02/26/national/w155434S80.DTL&type=politics
CUTS IN FUNDS FOR
KIDS IN MAINE
Children's health insurance poses a dilemma because Maine faces a
shortfall in Medicaid funding that threatens to cut off coverage for
thousands of children this summer. A congressional remedy at the end of
last year for other states failed to help Maine.
The program under Maine Care covers 14,800 children and pregnant women in families earning up to twice the federal poverty level. But Maine faces an estimated $6.5 million shortfall in July that jeopardizes health care for 3,250 children.
Baldacci said the federal funding for children's health care has a ripple effect. "It's important. It certainly will help the children and it will also help the families and the businesses."
Advocacy groups and the National Governors Association will be talking about how to extend the program rather than let it expire at the end of September.
The crux of the problem is that $5 billion a year in federal funding already can't keep up with participants nationwide, which would take an estimated $815 million. And many groups want to expand the program.
"Americans are looking to the president and Congress to help the
nation move forward -- not backward -- in covering uninsured families,"
said Ana Hicks, a policy analyst at Maine Equal Justice Partners.
For complete article>>>>
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/insight/jansen/070225bartjansenco.html
KEEPING SOCIAL
SECURITY FACTS IN MIND
We all remember President Bush's false claims about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. These claims were the basis for getting the country into the Iraq War, a disaster with no obvious end in sight. The same sorts of claims are being made about Social Security, with the goal of inflicting a similar disaster on the country's workers and retirees.
Just to get the facts straight, according to the projections from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Social Security can pay all scheduled benefits until 2046 with no changes whatsoever. CBO projects that even if nothing is ever done, the program could continue to pay almost 80 percent of scheduled benefits forever, providing retirees in the second half of this century with benefits that are far higher than today's seniors receive. In short, the idea that Social Security is about to go bankrupt - that there will be "nothing there" for young workers - is nonsense, as everyone familiar with the projections knows.
But, we keep hearing the drumbeat about Social Security's looming bankruptcy for the same reason that we heard the stories about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction: powerful interests - who, in this case, want to gut and/or privatize the program. The financial industry could make a fortune in fees and commissions if they could ever get their hands on Social Security.
All budget experts know that Medicare is projected to pose a huge
problem because health care costs in the United States are projected to
rise out of control. Those planning the attack on Social Security
routinely talk about the costs of "Social Security and Medicare" and
report huge numbers. Of course, the cost of mowing the White House lawn
and Medicare will also be enormous. The problem is not the cost of Social
Security or the cost of mowing the White House lawn. The problem is the
cost of health care in the United States: let's fix it.
For complete article>>>>
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0124-20.htm
Estimates by the Social Security trustees (using rather pessimistic
assumptions) and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
indicate that the trust fund is solvent for another 38 to 48 years if we
do nothing. In other words, Social Security is not going broke anytime
soon. The Social Security trust fund is as robust today as it has been in
recent years.
If you want more details try:
http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/issueguide_socialsecurityfacts
USEFUL SITES YOU
CAN TRUST
Provided courtesy of the Librarians Internet Index
Downtown San Francisco Health
Online
This health and news magazine, which serves residents of San Francisco,
CA, is useful for anyone who has questions on health issues. Their goal is
to provide "current, accurate, meaningful, and useful healthcare
information." There are articles on alternative healthcare and topics such
as seniors, women, medication updates, diet and nutrition, and Health News
Hot Off The Wire ("Cell phone not connected to head tumors," "The scoop on
chocolate," etc).
URL:
http://www.downtownsfhealth.org/
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RxList
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Alternative Fix
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MAINE HEALTH IN THE
NEWS
If you are looking for older (2003 to 2005) articles on health,
drug prices, imports, Dirigo Health, drug imports, Maine RX, Governor
Baldacci and health you may find what you are looking for among the 160
Portland Press Herald articles at:
http://news.mainetoday.com/indepth/healthcare/morenews.shtml
Although these are old articles they are not archived and the full
text is available with just a click on the headline and brief summary.
MORE MAINE HEALTH
NEWS
If you are looking for Maine health news for just the last few
months give the Pine Tree Legal Health Archives a try at:
http://www.ptla.org/news/dirigo_news_archive.htm
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Editor’s Note: We are working to
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others. You can remove your name/address from our list by sending name and
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send an e-mail to MCSC Director Neena
Quirion at
mcsc@mseaseiu.org
Ed Schlick
Editor