It was bound to happen. Late Friday afternoon on Labor Day weekend? It’s the ideal time for the Bush administration to release bad news it doesn’t want the public to see.
This time it was the largest increase, in dollar terms, in Medicare premiums in the history of the program.
Health insurance premiums for senior citizens enrolled in Medicare will rise 17.5 percent in 2005, bringing the total monthly payment to $78.20, Bush administration officials said yesterday.
As most Americans began the Labor Day holiday weekend, federal health officials held a late-afternoon briefing to announce that the 42 million disabled and elderly Medicare beneficiaries will be hit with the largest premium increase in 15 years.
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In dollars, the premium increase, up from $66 this year, is the largest ever.
Could this have a political impact? You better believe it.
Just 24 hours before the record-rate hike was announced, Bush was touting his achievements in “reforming” Medicare. But somehow I have a hunch that seniors will not view more money coming out of their pockets as a sign of success on the president’s part. These seniors will be paying a lot more for the same services, while Bush directs billions to the pharmaceutical industry for a prescription drug plan that no one wants to participate in.
And seniors vote.
Adding insult to injury, Friday’s move comes immediately after the Bush administration raised Medicare deductibles for the first time in 13 years.
Robert M. Hayes, president of the Medicare Rights Center, said the increase will be especially painful because Social Security payments are expected to rise less than 3 percent. “Older Americans already are staggering under the relentless increases in the cost of prescription drugs,” he said. “More older Americans will face harsh choices in meeting basic human needs — health, food and housing.”
In addition to the painful rate increases for America’s seniors, there can be little doubt that the administration was intentionally trying to bury the bad news. Consider the dates in which the Bush administration had announced previous Medicare premiums and co-payment rates: Oct. 19, 2001, Oct. 18, 2002, and Oct. 16, 2003. This year? Sept. 3, late in the afternoon. One of these things is not like the other.
I realize Bush administration officials find their own policies embarrassing; I would too. But there’s something fundamentally dishonest about hiding their domestic agenda until they think no one’s looking.
No matter, though. I suspect millions of seniors and disabled Americans who rely on Medicare will notice the administration’s failures here, whether Bush tries to hide it from them or not.