Bush Admin. Is Out to Destroy Medicare

News and Opinion for Democrats Against Bush -- Part I a

Bush Admin. Is Out to Destroy Medicare

" The drug benefit will be delivered almost entirely through private insurance plans. It would have been more efficient and cheaper to deliver it the same way other Medicare benefits are delivered. But that's not the idea. The Bush administration has mastered the art of legalized banditry, in which tons of government money — the people's money — are hijacked and handed over to the special interests...." --Bob Herbert, New York Times

New York Times December 8, 2003

Stalking the Giant Chicken Coop

By BOB HERBERT OP-ED COLUMNIST

The complete article may be purchased online from the New York Times archives at-- http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10912FC3B590C7B8CDDAB0994DB404482

Excerpt--

Today President Bush will sign into law a prescription drug benefit under Medicare that will introduce the first cold drafts of bitter reality to the G.O.P.'s long dream of dismantling Medicare as we've known it. ...

The bill that President Bush will sign today is a giant windfall for the drug companies, opening up a huge new market with virtually no effort to restrain prices. It will give Medicare recipients a modest drug benefit, but at a potentially dreadful cost. The bill starts the process of undermining Medicare by turning parts of it over to insurance companies, H.M.O.'s and other private contractors. ...

And then there's the "demonstration" project, to begin in 2010, in which Medicare will be forced in several cities to compete against private, profit-making health plans. It will be a rigged competition ....
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/08/opinion/08HERB.html

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FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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