2003 Medicare Modernization Act

As the war drags on and more people suffer it’s consequences, the U.S. government deceptively takes credit for improving life for the population of their enemy. Scattered reports in the media refute these claims but most obediently echo the war party line. Economic human rights violations occur routinely here at home as the American public joins many others worldwide as victims in this ravaging conflict. Tangible attacks by our ‘representative’ government on us are overshadowed in the press by hysteria-inducing terror warnings. 43 million Americans already suffer the terror of having no health insurance as we live in the only industrialized nation lacking a universal plan. The government, already without the burden to provide health care for able-bodied adults, now moves to eliminate it’s burden for senior citizens.

The proof lies in the recently passed 2003 Medicare Modernization Act, hailed as a triumph for President Bush’s ‘compassionate’ domestic philosophy. A few moments of scrutiny reveals that the legislation proves to be a boon to pharmaceutical companies and a major step towards privatizing this essential program. Perhaps the most striking element of the law is that it bans the government from using it’s bulk market power to lower drug costs for seniors. Big pharmaceutical companies pour money into our politician’s campaigns and are rewarded with this assurance that prices will remain high. According to Democratic Presidential hopeful John Kerry the Medicare act ‘lines the pockets of powerful moneyed interests and leaves America’s seniors out in the cold.’

The prescription drug plan was exalted as the major achievement of the bill but problems exist beyond the inability of the government to control skyrocketing prices. Qualifying single seniors (age 65 and over) with incomes under $13,000/year will pay a small co-payment for prescriptions once the plan goes into effect in 2006. Couples must earn less than $17,000/year and qualify in a myriad of other ways to get the same coverage. For everyone else a $250 annual deductible and a $35/month bill will keep you on the plan. Once on the government will pay for 75% of drug costs up to $2250 for the year. Once you pass $2250 a gray zone exists where the individual must pay for 100% of the drug costs until $5100 in costs is accumulated. Once you pass $5100 the government pays 95% of the costs. Under this complicated plan millions will still pay 100% of their drug expenses if their medicine costs between $2250 and $5100 for the year.

The bill also calls for a test to begin in 2010 where 2 million seniors in 6 metropolitan areas will switch to private plans to replace their Medicare. The affected seniors will have to pay 5% more for their Medicare if the private plans are cheaper. Government leaders are fully aware that with the irresponsible tax cuts for the rich and a twisted obsession to spend money on everything but the well being of the citizenry, entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare will be impossible to sustain. The move to privatize Medicare in the future was made in the signing of this bill.

American society has become overrun with special interests and the wicked desires of the rich to consume beyond the elastic limit of the rest of us. In the richest country in the world, people are refused health care necessary to them. This situation is identical to terrorism in it’s mindless and brutal destruction of lives. The government continues it’s assault on us with this Medicare act, stripping away more of the protections put into place to shield us from the ravages of the market system. The War on Terrorism is indeed fought on American soil and countless casualties are inflicted daily… but don’t expect to hear about these on the 6 o’clock news.