Archive for November, 2007
New Report Finds Drug Plan Premiums Up Almost 25%
Thursday, November 29th, 2007A new issue brief from the Center for Economic and Policy Research confirms the bad news that seniors who get their prescriptions under Part D already feared…their costs for drugs are skyrocketing. According to “Changes in the Costs of Medicare Prescription Drug Plans, 2007-2008″ , the average Part D premium will rise by 24.5 percent [...]
Wow…
Thursday, November 29th, 2007What a difference a week makes! There has been more discussion and debate about this administration’s phony Social Security crisis in the past 9 days than we’ve seen since 2005. Thank goodness. We’ve been talking about it for years (although it felt more like a monologue sometimes than a dialogue) including most recently here, here [...]
More of the Same
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007And in the same vein, Presidential candidate Fred Thompson has been winning praise from the media for “doing something” on Social Security. Doesn’t anyone care about what his plan actually does? Here are some of the basics of Thompson’s Social Security proposal: · Divert money out of Social Security and into private accounts.· Make huge [...]
A Counterfeit Crisis
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007Finally, we’re no longer feeling like a voice in the wilderness. It’s certainly not popular in Washington to buck the administration’s well publicized and financed “entitlement crisis” propaganda campaign. Over the years, the Bush administration has created a mythology of impending doom for Social Security that just doesn’t exist. Their script casts anyone who doesn’t [...]
Higher premiums, Growing Out of Pocket Costs & Doughnut Holes
Thursday, November 15th, 2007It’s Medicare Open enrollment time again. A painful annual ritual for American seniors who, in order to receive prescription drug coverage under Medicare’s privatized Part D program, must wade through pounds of statistics, charts and cost analyses just to determine if their current plan will even serve their needs next year. Why, is this so [...]
Political Gamesmanship Threatens SSA
Monday, November 12th, 2007by Maria Freese, NCPSSM Government Relations& Policy DirectorCongress and the President are beginning the final stages of a high-stakes political game of poker as the year winds down. With no compromise in sight on funding levels for any of our government agencies, this is the first time in recent memory that a President has categorically [...]
"Entitlement " Commission Hearing in Senate
Friday, November 2nd, 2007Entitlement hysteria is in full view on Capitol Hill this week as the Senate Budget committee held its first hearing on legislation proposed to create yet another bipartisan commission. We’ve already expressed our position on this commission, see here and here . Unfortunately, this first hearing proceeded down exactly the path we’ve expressed concern about [...]