Senate Dems Ask Cantor: Will Seniors Owe The U.S. $250?

[babylonsister]

Love it! More of this please!

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/in-letter-to-cantor-schumer-menendez-demand-answer-to-key-repeal-question.php?ref=fpa


In Letter To Cantor, Schumer, Menendez Demand Answer To Key Repeal Question
Brian Beutler | January 24, 2011, 8:30AM


As promised, Senate Democrats aren't going to take the GOP's health care repeal push lying down.

In a letter delivered to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor Sunday, Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) demand an answer to a question now at the center of the Republican party's top legislative priority: Will repealing the health care law force seniors to reimburse the government for the $250 check they received in 2010 to help them pay for prescription drugs?

"We are particularly concerned that repeal would reverse the course of making prescription drugs more affordable for seniors," Schumer and Menendez write. "The {repeal} legislation approved by the House could require seniors to repay the government."

One of the major goals of the Affordable Care Act is to close the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap, better known to most as the "donut hole." The law will fill that hole over a decade, and in 2010, that meant many seniors received a $250 rebate check.

"Richard Foster, the Chief Actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), has said that "in theory," seniors would have to return the checks if repeal becomes law," the letter reads.



more...

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/in-letter-to-cantor-schumer-menendez-demand-answer-to-key-repeal-question.php?ref=fpa

[Oceansaway]

1. K&R...n/t

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. It will be interesting to see Cantor, et. al try to squirm out of that

People have been sold a pack of lies about PPACA- that it's some horrific government takeover complete with "death panels" and abortion funding- but the polls have shown that people are actually quite supportive of the package whenever they are polled on the individual provisions (other than the mandate). Confronting Republicans about what individual provisions they want to get rid of and what they want to keep while at the same time educating people about what PPACA actually includes (piece-by-piece) is going to be the best strategy for saving PPACA. Republicans seem to have more leverage over the debate when they can lie about the overall package but the more people know what's actually in the bill (and that the Republicans have nothing to replace it with) the less supportive of repeal they'll actually be IMHO. By 2012, the benefits of the law should be firmly established enough to withstand a drive for repeal and, hopefully, the debate will shift from repealing the law to fixing and expanding it instead. Do people REALLY want to go back to the way things were pre-PPACA? It would be interesting to see some polling on THAT!

[William769]

3. Not very many Seniors got that check, in fact fer did.

You had to hit catastrophe coverage without help from any other social programs that help pay for your meds.

[babylonsister]

4. Few? 750,000 and counting, according to this...

http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Medicare/2010/20100812-ThirdRound.htm

and more relief on the way...

[William769]

5. There are almost 50 million people getting Social Security

Going by your link, like I said a few.

http://www.ssa.gov/history/pdf/T5a4.pdf

[phleshdef]

6. It has nothing to do with social security. If they hit the donut hole limit they get the check.

If they haven't had to buy enough medication to hit the donut hole limit, then there is no reason for them to get the check.

You can diminish the value of it all you want, but I guess that also means you don't think the donut hole is a big deal.

[William769]

7. It's a very big deal

I know I try to hit it every year but I can't it's to damn expesive to get to so I do with out meds for about half the year.

So take your attitude someplace else.

ON EDIT: It's not about Social Security? Who do you think gets mediacre?

[phleshdef]

8. Seniors of course. But not all seniors have serious health problems.

And some seniors have supplemental health plans as part of retirement from certain jobs, etc. Only seniors who rely on Medicare to pay for their medication and are sick enough to even need that much medication are going to hit the donut hole, and thus those are the ones that are getting the reimbursement checks as the donut hole is closed. It wouldn't make sense to give every person on Medicare a $250 donut hole check. You give it to the people that it was intended for, which are the people that actually experience the effect of the donut hole. If you don't think a significant number of people got the $250 check (which is what it seemed you were saying), then you are also saying that an insignificant number of people are experiencing effects of the donut hole.