Wed, Feb. 01, 2006
Fiscal discipline on the backs of the needy
OUR OPINION: REJECT BUDGET BILL IN FAVOR OF MORE SENSIBLE SAVINGS
The so-called Deficit Reduction Act is a prime example of how good
intentions become laws that favor special interests at the expense of
vulnerable populations that don't have high-priced lobbyists. This budget
bill (S 1932) should have included more-sensible spending cuts, called for
by the Senate, in both Medicare and Medicaid. Instead, lawmakers chose House
provisions that promise greater hardship for needy beneficiaries and higher
costs for local communities.
Deficit to grow
Adding insult to injury, the budget bill won't reduce the deficit with its
projected $38.8 billion in savings over five years. Pending tax-cut measures
that will cost between $60 billion to $95 billion over five years not only
will wipe out any savings but actually increase the deficit.
These priorities are out of whack. That's why the House, which has scheduled
a final vote on the Deficit Reduction Act today, should reject the bill and
send it back to a conference committee for retooling.
As it stands, the budget bill will raise healthcare costs for millions of
Medicaid beneficiaries. It will add stringent rules that will disqualify
many seniors from Medicaid nursing-home coverage. And it cuts programs that
help states collect child-support payments and pay for foster care. One
provision would require all U.S. citizens to provide a birth certificate or
passport or be dropped from Medicaid. This alone will cause hardship, if
not, in fact, disqualify people who lost their papers in Katrina and other
disasters, as well as many elderly Southern blacks who never were given
birth certificates.
The cuts in Medicare and Medicaid alone account for more than half of the
bill's savings over 10 years. But those savings do not consider the added
expenses that will be borne by local hospitals and taxpayers who pick up the
tab for people who will end up in the emergency room because they can't
afford the co-payments for preventive care or those cut from Medicaid
altogether.
Industry pressure
Particularly galling were the closed-door negotiations that eliminated
sensible Senate provisions. Pushed by health insurers, House and Senate
conferees diluted provisions to curb overpayments to HMOs that cover
Medicare beneficiaries. Thus, $22 billion in potential savings over 10 years
were given back to HMOs. Another Senate provision would have cut Medicaid's
prescription-drug costs. Opposed by the pharmaceutical industry and
pharmacists, it was diluted by $7.5 billion.
House lawmakers should reject the budget bill and insist that these Senate
provisions be restored. Other provisions that will increase the ranks of the
uninsured should be axed. Congress also should pare down the tax cuts.
Fiscal discipline mustn't come only at the expense of the poor and infirm.
http://tinyurl.com/bso62
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/13760710.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
--
The greater the leader, the greater the follower. Personalities who as
individuals are particularly narcissistic are the most qualified to fit this
function. The narcissism of the leader who is convinced of his greatness,
and who has no doubts, is precisely what attracts the narcissism of those
who submit to him. The half-insane leader is often the most successful one
until his lack of objective judgment, his rage reactions in consequence of
any set-back, his need to keep his image of omnipotence may provoke him to
make mistakes which lead to his destruction. But there are always gifted
half-psychotics at hand to satisfy the demands of a narcissistic mass.
Erich Fromm
'The Heart of Man - It's Genius for Good and Evil'
--
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