Good article discussing some of the political history of Medicare...one thing to note though as citizens we have no vote over what happens with private industry other than to try to lobby some support; however when the government was fully in charge, as citizens we much more of a voice and some of those items can end on a ballot for a vote...with today's standards the average citizen does not have a vote and lobbying is difficult as the big corporations have the money and resources to dedicate ....the more the industry is privatized, the less influence we have...BD
Medicare, as Newt Gingrich hoped it would, continues to "wither on the vine." This most popular health insurance program for older and disabled Americans is losing its life in a bitter ideological struggle between Republicans who have privatized much of Medicare and Democrats who aim to restore it as a universal public program.
Largely as a result of this struggle, which began with the Gingrich Congress in 1995 and continues today, Medicare's financial status and future are in much worse shape than Social Security. Medicare, rather than Social Security, should be a focus of the 2008 campaigns, for, as the trustees reported in 2007
In short, much of Medicare has become private insurance with all the complications and price increases. Aside from the privatized Part D, more than 20 percent of beneficiaries have left Medicare for Medicare Advantage, the euphemism for private insurance such as an HMO. These plans, which are growing, are sapping not only members from original Medicare, but money.
Even patients with Medicare Advantage find their doctors have dropped out of the network. Many voters did not notice when the Republican platform in 2000 called Medicare a "dinosaur" that needed to be tossed out onto the free market. President George W. Bush has built on that promise and Gingrich's pledge, with private insurance in Part D and in Medicare Advantage.
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