medicareburningbush

U.S. residents ages 65 and older will spend "a large and growing share" of Social Security payments on Medicare premiums, copayments and out-of-pocket expenses after a voluntary prescription drug benefit takes effect, according to federal data excluded from the Bush administration's 2004 report on the Medicare program, USA Today reports. A recently released chart shows that seniors on average will spend 37.2% of Social Security payments on Medicare in 2006, 39.4% in 2011, 45.2% in 2016, 49.7% in 2021 and 53.2% by 2026. According to USA Today, "Unless Congress does something to hold down costs confronting seniors, the official projections suggest that health spending will consume virtually the entire amount of Social Security benefits when children born today reach retirement age." The voluntary prescription drug benefit requires beneficiaries to pay an estimated $420 annual premium initially, as well as copayments. The Bush administration has calculated that beneficiaries will save 50% on their prescription drug costs, but opponents of the law say the estimates indicate that it will have a limited effect on prescription drug costs, USA Today reports.

Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) -- who opposed the drug benefit -- requested the data "after noticing that a chart included in the previous annual reports was not in the 2004 version," USA Today reports. Stark alleges that the administration did not publish the chart because it includes unfavorable information about the law. Stark said, "It doesn't look good to lie to grandma, so the Bush administration has withheld information and come up with other creative ways to mask the damage they've done to Medicare." Ron Pollack, director of Families USA, said that the data "ironically are the clearest proof of the new Medicare law's failures and the resulting squeeze on seniors' pocketbooks." Medicare chief actuary Richard Foster said Medicare trustees replaced the chart with a graph "that lacks specific numbers" to highlight that the new drug program provides additional benefits as well as costs to beneficiaries. Foster said, "The [excluded] table makes it look like beneficiaries are worse off than ever, and that's not the case." Bill Pierce, a spokesperson for HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, said, "We have a new program, and its got to be reflected with new information" (Welch, USA Today, 9/14).