PrintMarch 20, 2009
Obama Stiffs Poor and Minority Seniors
One of Barack Obama's most frequently repeated campaign promises was that his health care reforms would allow Americans to keep their current insurance coverage if they so desired. Like much of his campaign rhetoric, however, that pledge turns out to have been disingenuous. Last week, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag reiterated the administration's commitment to budget cuts that will force 10 million seniors off their Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and back to the more expensive and less comprehensive coverage of traditional Medicare. The Obama administration and its shills in the "news" media have been spinning this policy as a long-overdue comeuppance for the health insurance industry, but the real victims will be poor and minority seniors.MA is an alternative health coverage vehicle created for seniors as part of the Bush administration's market-based Medicare reforms. These reforms, collectively known as the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, established a system...(Read Full Article)
