THE CAUCUS, NEW YORK TIMES BLOG
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/mccain-to-propose-changes-in-medicare-drug-program/

April 14, 2008,  7:47 pm
McCain to Propose Changes in Medicare Drug Program                                         
By Michael Cooper

PITTSBURGH – It is no secret that Senator John McCain has never been a fan of the way President Bush and Congress added a new prescription drug benefit to Medicare a few years ago. He voted against the bill, raised alarms about its costs, and tried, in vain, to allow Americans to import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada.

Now Mr. McCain is planning to call for wealthier Medicare recipients to pay higher premiums in order to qualify for the prescription drug coverage, the McCain campaign’s top economic advisers said Monday evening. He is making the call for higher premiums as he is pushing for a series of cuts in corporate and other taxes.

Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, plans to outline his proposal to change the Medicare drug benefit as part of a broad speech on the economy that he plans to deliver here on Tuesday. In the speech he will also say that as president he would try to impose a one-year freeze on all discretionary government spending – except in the military and for veterans’ benefits – while the government can conduct what his aides called a “top to bottom review” of federal spending.
Mr. McCain’s chief economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, did not outline exactly how the change to the Medicare drug plan would work. But he suggested that the higher premiums might kick in for couples earning more than $160,000 a year, and noted that a similar proposal that was made recently would have affected only the wealthiest 5 percent of Medicare recipients and would have saved roughly $2 billion a year.

Mr. McCain signaled his frustration over the Medicare drug benefit last week during a campaign stop in Connecticut. “Now you are paying for my prescription drugs,’’ he said. “Why should that be? Why should that be? Why should that be?”
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US NEWS & WORLD REPORT BLOG

A Q&A With McCain Adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin
April 14, 2008 03:16 PM ET | James Pethokoukis | Permanent Link

Douglas Holtz-Eakin is the director of economic policy for Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign. He's also a former director of the Congressional Budget Office. I recently caught up with Holtz-Eakin at McCain campaign headquarters and chatted with him a bit about taxes, the size of government, and energy policy. (To get his take on Clintonomics and the 1990s, see this.) Here are some excerpts:

How would a President McCain make Social Security solvent?
He believes it can be fixed without raising taxes.... If you just do [indexing benefits to prices rather than wages] you can fix it over the long haul, and he is perfectly willing to have personal accounts be part of this as long as they are not a substitute for fixing the basic challenges facing the system. When he becomes president, he will ask Congress to do it. He will send them a bill, up-or-down vote, let's go.
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BEAT THE PRESS
Dean Baker's commentary on economic reporting

We Do Not Have to Reduce the Rate of Growth of Social Security

In an article on the cost of the Iraq War, the NYT presents a quote from James R. Horney, director of federal fiscal policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, asserting that, "we’re in a situation where we have to reduce spending and reduce the rate of growth of Medicare and Medicaid and, to a lesser extent, Social Security."

The projections of rising health care costs in the United States imply that if the health care system is not fixed, Medicare and Medicaid will impose an enormous burden on the federal budget. However, the projected growth in Social Security system is relatively modest. Furthermore, the Congressional Budget Office projects the program to be fully funded by its designated taxes through the year 2046, with no changes whatsoever. The program can be fully funded through its 75-year planning horizon with tax increases that are no larger than were put in place in each of the decades from the 50s through the 80s.

In his quote, Mr. Horney was expressing his own desire to see Social Security spending reduced, not reflecting the actual realities of the budget. This fact should have been made clear in the article.

--Dean Baker
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CQ TODAY
 http://public.cq.com/docs/cqm/cqmidday110-000002702403.html
April 11, 2008 – 1:41 p.m.
Senate Chairman Seeks 18-Month Halt to Medicare Physician Payment Cuts

The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee met with lobbyists for various physicians’ groups Friday to seek their support for a “modest” plan to stop an upcoming cut in Medicare payments to doctors.

Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said he is proposing to blocked the scheduled rate cuts for 18 months. He will try to go beyond that and provide a 1.1 percent boost in doctor payments if lawmakers can agree on a way to offset that cost, he told the group.

Unless Congress acts in the next few weeks, a 10.6 percent payment cut will take effect in June, with deeper cuts to follow in 2009 and beyond.
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CONGRESS DAILY
  
 HEALTH
Martha Stewart Gives Advice To Senate Aging Committee
     Martha Stewart was not invited to testify before the Senate Aging Committee Wednesday to discuss table settings or baking but to address the growing need for caregivers for the elderly in an aging American society.
     Stewart and several professionals in geriatrics urged committee members to write legislation to increase the required training for healthcare workers, use grants to encourage geriatrics as a specialty in medical schools, better organize the delivery of health care and educate family members who become caregivers for an elderly relative.
     "I understand the challenges family caregivers face," Stewart said. "My mother, Martha Kostyra, passed away last year at the age of 93. My siblings and I were fortunate that she was in good health almost until she died. Still, we came to know firsthand the number of issues that needed to be managed."
     Shortly before her mother's death, Stewart opened the Martha Stewart Center for Living at The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, a geriatric outpatient clinic.
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6.
ELDER JUSTICE UPDATE:
Work continues in both the House and the Senate to gain passage of H.R. 1783 AND S.1070, The Elder Justice Act. The number of co-sponsors of the House bill has grown to 105. Click on the following link to view a list of current Co-Sponsors: House Co-Sponsors
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7.
Tax Rebate Update:
Even though April 15th has come and gone, for those low income seniors who may not have filed a tax return, they may still be able to get their one time tax rebate.   As long as a 1040 A form is filed by October 15th, a rebate can still be obtained.