Obama Promises Bid to Overhaul Retiree Spending

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama said Wednesday that overhauling Social Security and Medicare would be “a central part” of his administration’s efforts to contain federal spending, signaling for the first time that he would wade into the thorny politics of entitlement programs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/us/politics/08obama.html?_r=1&hp

He better stay away from this hornet's nest until he gets some major capital built up. It needs reform, but he better get a lot of other items taken care of. This is one area where he will get little support right now.

Just on the political point of view this is exactly when Bush became a lame duck. He thought he had a mandate and was going to get his privatization thing pushed through and nobody was biting. It just drifted off into oblivion as did his political capital. I am not so sure that SS needs major fixing out of the gate, Medicare certainly, but that could be done with single payer universal health care coming on line (not that I expect that to happen, but it would be a fix).

tossed out of it. Roll back the hmo Medicare Advantage program, and the drug program the Repubs pushed through. Allow negotiations for drug prices.

Perhaps this is where Obama will start. It needs doing. Cutting back on services? That will open that same can of worms that was the beginning of the end of Bush.

Wat

So I will neither agree or disagree with your statement for lack of information. I do know that Medicare is the problem coming well before SS needs attention.

But, tossing out Big Pharma is never a bad idea IMO.


:hi:

But really, I think I meant to reply to the OP. Thanks for being so gracious.

:hi:

Wat

mid 50's here......

Us old dudes need to stick together and maintain some decorum.


:thumbsup:

I don't think they'll be holding all the cards, like they did with the bushies.

Wat

This is one of their pet issues.

opposing him from every corner of the country. Do not make the "older" folks mad.
They will make ActUp look like a coffee klatch. The Capitol will be beseiged.
Obama will get stuck on this issue and never be able to get off.

before he does anything else.

some changes need to be made and I trust Obama to make critical decisions that affect the middle class than the repubs under Bush.

SS and Medicare are the "third rail." I don't believe at this point
even Obama better talk too much about reforming them. He needs to gain
the trust of the American people who have a lot of hope.
If he proves he can master other problems, then he might have some weight
to use on SS and Medicare. He will need a lot of people on board to do
any reforming of those programs. That could take an entire 4 year term.

If you're disabled at any age, you have to have this.

Full long term care should have been part of the original Medicare when it passed back in the 60s, but supporters didn't have the balls to get it through then.

The MedicAID model of providing long term care (with its demeaning and barbaric process to "qualify") IS NOT WORKING. It strips applicants and their families of their dignity and everything they've ever worked for even after they've lost their health permanently -- and in the end the state pays the bill anyway and nothing much if anything is "saved" financially. It's costing billions to warehouse people in substandard institutionalized care.

Anybody at any age could become disabled. Maybe YOU, someday.

Any healthcare plan that does not include full long term care for the disabled, and choice in how that care is delivered, is NO PLAN AT ALL.

Plans floating out there and I can't IMAGINE how elderly un-informed people are able to wade through the unending "choices" being hawked by so many as THE PLAN for them!!

My ex-sister-in-law is 71 and asked me to help her find a plan and EVEN I was overwhelmed by what i waded through. I'm not even sure she got the best plan in the end. She pays Medicare and then needed a "supplement plan" for medications. It's a NIGHTMARE.

I'm so thankful that my husband worked for GTE/Verizon because of the Union benefits and even though we are given a choice of plans to pick from each year, we have pretty good coverage. Even though I don't like the HMO approach and restrictions of some plans, we have a large network of doctors to choose from where I live.

My elderly mother-in-law who lived with us for 10 years was military was able to get Tri-Care and that was a GREAT help too. We were finally able to get Hospice to take her in but her review is coming up Feb. 1 and we don't know it she will be able to continue with Hospice. She has SEVERE Alzheimer's and is unable to comprehend much of anything and needs TOTAL care. But the fact that she has nor real "disease" such as cancer, etc and takes no medication she may get booted out. We are very worried because living will states her home can't be sold until she passes away and we will have to take on the taxes and insurance of her home. We don't have extra money to this and her home is almost a two hour drive from ours! We take care of the upkeep now, but her Medicare will pay is she's in Hospice, but NOT if she's in a Nursing Home! It sucks!!

--and you've solved those problems.

However...Obama might want to ere on the side of caution when it comes to this issue.

My husband held a union job...we had reasonably good insurance...when he retired...the cost to keep it going has about killed us financially...I am older than he, so I went to Medicare the same year he retired...O.M.G.....I can't begin to tell you the nightmare it was to switch the primary coverage from his union coverage, to Medicare...and how many times, I had to give the same information to the same people...in order to get it straightened out...I dread that this month he goes to Medicare and now we use his union insurance as our secondary, after what I went through with mine...I asked the Doctor's office if Medicare was trying to kill us off, by causing us to have a stroke from stress, over their apparent stupidity when it came to billing properly...I could not get Medicare to admit, they were NOW my PRIMARY coverage...and his union insurance had become secondary...The two insurances fought over who was NOT going to pay...I kept receiving notices that neither were going to cover any costs...I sent letter after letter...and somewhere in the process, the lights must have come on and someone got it straight...I was ready to spit...I was so irritated...

My question became...if a person has problems relating to people, has anxiety, or depression, or simply is not genius...how do they deal with all this bullshit...or say they are really elderly and do NOT totally understand what's going on...who deals with this paperwork for them??? You almost need a third party to intervene between them and yourself...I know a lady in this exact spot right now...

Then, some guy tried to get me to sign up for an advantage program...just think, he tells me....the gov't pays about $600 a month for you to belong, and the coverage is so much better than just regular medicare...uh huh....however...it's handled through private insurance agencies(which made me shy away)...and I refused to believe that a financially broken gov't, is going to provide people with medical insurance that costs around $600 a month...while they only get paid back, that $100 they take out of your SS to pay for regular medicare....iow...every month...the gov't takes a loss of $500 on EVERY person who ever signed up for an advantage medicare program....I asked him, exactly HOW LONG...can that continue before someone decides to change it?? Either I am going to find, I no longer have coverage at all....OR....one day I am going to receive a bill for the other $500 per month with a demand to pay or else....needless to say, I didn't sign up...so I say, Medicare does indeed need to be dealt with....but, with due care and caution...wb

ps: my son is in the medical billing field...he won't even discuss medicare's part D....other than to say it's a nightmare...

They have either changed over, or are trying to. They couldn't believe the hoops the hmo's had them jumping through. And the things it wouldn't pay for. Cost them much more in the long run than straight medicare and a medigap policy would cost. I know doctors who say the Advantage crap is nothing but a scam on old folks.

And you are certainly right about the Part D part - I solved that one by ignoring it. If I get sick I'll worry about meds then. When I had minor surgery recently and told them I didn't have part D, the doc gave me samples of what I needed. If I had to buy it would have cost over $200. But Part D would cost me a helluva lot more!

Wat