Posted on 03/10/2014 10:06:01 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
March 10, 2014, 12:38 pm Obama drops Medicare changes
By Elise Viebeck
The Obama administration is abandoning a surprise plan to alter Medicare drug coverage rules after it was almost unanimously panned by Congress and K Street.
Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner alerted lawmakers Monday that her agency would not finalize regulations giving insurers more leeway to limit the number of drugs they cover for Medicare beneficiaries.
Critics argued that making the change, which the administration said would save money, would have hampered seniors' access to necessary medications
Democrats had worried the issue could have hurt them in the midterm elections.
Tavennar's announcement means six classes of prescription drugs will continue to be subject to strict rules that would require that nearly all drugs in the classes be covered under Medicare.
If the change had gone forward, only three classes of drugs would have been subject to those rules.
“We will engage in further stakeholder input before advancing some or all of the changes in these areas in future years,” Tavenner wrote in a letter to lawmakers announcing the administration was backing off.
“We are committed to continuing to work with Congress to continue to ensure that Parts C and D work best for Medicare beneficiaries.”
This fraud is correctly named after Obama.
He’s making it up on the fly.
They want to cram Obamacare down the nations throat but “Democrats had worried the issue could have hurt them in the midterm elections”
Thats what it is all about
They are just having a very hard time with the whole “Hurt Republicans while helping Democrats” part. That has proven far more difficult to implement than they expected.
If you like your congressional seats, you can keep them.
“The Obama administration is abandoning a surprise plan to alter Medicare drug coverage rules after it was almost unanimously panned by Congress”
Uh......how?
Two possible paths... keep postponing indefinitely, or two, stop having elections.
‘Rats prefer the latter course.
His pen hath demons.
As far as I can tell, a senior citizen only needs to have Medicare Part A (the "free" part) to avoid the Obamacare penalty.
Beware, Medicare beneficiaries! After the election, Obama will be more “flexible,” as he has been for Putin’s invasion of Crimea. After the election, he will issue another decree reversing the reversal.
Guess he thought killing grandma and grandpa might hurt his support among the general constituency.
I suspect that the cuts to Medicare will not happen because of the political pressure. So the $750 billion from Medicare that was supposed to fund Obamacare will have to come from somewhere else, i.e., through more deficit spending or higher taxes. Medicare costs nine times more than it was projected to cost. Obamacare will cost much more than the estimates. Just another entitlement program to bankrupt the country.
Just goes to show what a comic opera farce this whole thing has become.
In order to control costs, you HAVE to control choice.
But at the first little inkling that someone’s choices will be limited, the entire political machine comes down like a ton of bricks. The insurer or government agency puts it’s tail between its legs and slinks away.
You CANNOT control costs through any kind of centralized bureaucracy. Only by empowering consumers to make smart spending choices.
translation: we're waiting for the unions to give us marching orders.
I’ll change it. No I won’t.
Yes I will. Wait, no. For a year. Wait, no, for two years. Yes. Or wait, no. I think I will change it. Maybe. Or not. Um.....
I only have Part A, so I did search for the answer. The answer is that you only need part A.
I think it's AMAC, the alternative-conservative retirees organization, that had an answer to that question.
About Part B. A lot of people think that they have to have it and pay that monthly premium. But not so. The way it's done is a retiree has to opt in to part D but opt out of part B.
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