ELF News Archives
November 2003- Medicare fraud: Reforming our way to bankruptcy -
The essence of the Medicare bill is a reckless expansion of a program that was bound for bankruptcy even before the Republicans decided to steal an issue from the Democrats by pushing a huge new prescription drug entitlement.
Town Hall 11/27
- WMDs found in Medicare legislation -
The nation is facing two threats. The first comes from nations and terrorists that hate us and possess weapons of mass destruction. The second is from a different kind of weapon of mass destruction, a more insidious kind, the kind that is slowly but surely destroying us from within through mass entitlement spending, mass bureaucracy, mass taxation, and mass consumer and government debt.
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons 11/26
- GOP Renews Era of Big Government -
10 years after the sweeping Clinton health care plan was opposed by conservative Republicans, conservative Republicans are forcing Americans into government-run health care.
Capitalism Magazine 11/26
- Republican Socialism -
Congress worked late into the night this past weekend to pass a Medicare prescription drug bill that represents the single largest expansion of the federal welfare state since the Great Society programs of the 1960s. The new Medicare drug plan enriches pharmaceutical companies, fleeces taxpayers, and forces millions of older Americans to accept inferior drug coverage – while doing nothing to address the real reasons prescription drugs cost so much.
Lew Rockwell 11/25
- Its All Over! - Senate approves Medicare bill -
The Senate gave final congressional approval Tuesday to the most sweeping changes to Medicare since its creation in 1965, including a new prescription drug benefit for 40 million older and disabled Americans. The 54-44 vote sends the bill to President Bush, who is eager to sign it into law.
USA Today 11/25
- Medicare as Pork Barrel -
Given all the excitement, you'd think that passing a Medicare drug benefit would solve one of the nation's pressing social problems.
It won't. But you wouldn't know that from politicians or the news media. They treat the elderly's problems in getting drugs as a major social crisis.
Washington Post 11/25
- The Medicare Frame-Up: Republican "Free Market" Medicare Bill is Closet Socialism -
the agreement is based on the same socialist premise as the original Medicare system--and it promises to be every bit as disastrous in practice. The premise is that one gains a moral claim to a good, not by earning it, but simply by needing it. On this premise, as long as any patient has an unmet need, other people must be coerced--whether through taxes or regulations--to meet it.
Economically, this guarantees skyrocketing expenses as more and more of the elderly cash the blank checks offered them by government.
Capitalism Magazine 11/24
- Medicare bill includes tax-free accounts -
New health savings accounts included in Medicare legislation would let individuals save, invest and then spend money tax-free... To avoid all taxes, the dollars must pay for medical expenses. The lure of "tax-free asset accumulation," as advertised by the House Ways and Means Committee, coaxed some conservative Republicans into supporting a vast new Medicare drug benefit.
Washington Times 11/24
- Democrats short of filibuster on Medicare bill -
The bill would create a prescription-drug benefit for 40 million older and disabled Americans, as well as a new option for private health care coverage. Democrats overwhelmingly oppose the plan....
Washington Times 11/24
- Bid to Change Social Security Is Back
President Bush's aides are reviving his long-shelved plan to let workers divert some Social Security taxes into stocks as a reelection issue, gambling that market drops have not soured voters on the politically risky idea....Informed observers blame the disparity on what they perceive as a long-standing bias against older Americans by medical personnel.
Washington Post 11/23
- The Medicare Hunt: A 28-hour turkey season -
Just as troubling is what all this (prescription drug) money's being spent on. An NCPA analysis released earlier this week estimates that, even if one assumes the $400 billion cap will hold, only six to seven percent of the new spending will pay for new drugs for seniors. All the rest will simply replace existing spending on drugs, mainly by the 70 percent of Medicare beneficiaries who already have some kind of presciption drug coverage.
Town Hall 11/23
- The Better Deal: Estimating Rates of Return under a System of Individual Accounts -
Advocates of reforming Social Security by allowing workers to privately invest a portion of their Social Security taxes through individual accounts have long argued that private investment would provide a higher rate of return and, therefore, higher retirement benefits than Social Security.
Cato Institute 11/21
- Rx for bankruptcy -
Our leaders learned a valuable lesson from that experience: They learned not to bother their pretty little heads about the long-range cost of new federal programs. Better to worry about winning the next election, and let the kids and grandkids figure out how to pay the bill.
Washington Times 11/21
- AARP accused of conflict of interest -
The organization receives millions of dollars a year in royalties for insurance marketed under its name. It stands to reap a windfall from the plan, which would pump $400 billion into a new drug benefit and open Medicare to private insurance competition.
USA Today 11/21
- Pushing prescription drugs -
Cost-control measures in the legislation include a tiered premium system, mandatory competition among insurance plans and Health Savings Accounts that provide individual control to cover medical costs. Formerly known as Medical Savings Accounts, the measure has long been a priority for conservatives but was never within reach until now.
Washington Times 11/19
- Letters about medical care -
Reader responses to the discussion of government-controlled medical care in this column raised questions that need answering. The most frequently raised question was why American pharmaceutical drugs sell for less in other countries.
Town Hall 11/19
- Letters about medical care -
Reader responses to the discussion of government-controlled medical care in this column raised questions that need answering. The most frequently raised question was why American pharmaceutical drugs sell for less in other countries.
Town Hall 11/19
- AARP backs Medicare bill -
The nation's leading seniors' advocacy group, the AARP, yesterday strongly endorsed the White House-backed Medicare prescription-drug bill and pledged to "work vigorously for its passage," including a $7 million three-day ad blitz starting tomorrow.
Washington Times 11/18
- In Canada, rationing health care -
Doctors, nurses work hard to strike delicate balance treating the sick in government-financed, equal-access system
Baltimore Sun 11/17
- Details of Prescription Drug Plan -
USA Today 11/17
- Bush pushes pact on Medicare -
Capitol Hill negotiators released a six-page summary of the 10-year Medicare prescription-drug bill, which is required by this year's budget law to cost no more than $400 billion. The key provision would give millions of seniors prescription-drug coverage for the first time for a premium of about $35 a month.
Washington Times 11/17
- Cato's Tanner Says Polling Suggests Social Security a 2004 Winner -
The latest Gallop Poll results show that individual accounts are a winning election issue,...
Cato Institute 11/14
- A Tax Lesson - What’s So Bad about the Budget Deficit?
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Bureaucracies are funded and special interests are paid off; food stamps and welfare checks are distributed; wars and occupations are financed; and, if the president gets his way, prescription drugs are made available to the elderly — and all at no additional cost.
Private debt is voluntary, has a limit, and affects only the borrower. Deficit financing, by comparison, is coercive and also a boundless levy cravenly laid on the backs of future wage-earners who are powerless to prevent it. It is $540 billion that people won’t be able to spend on their own homes, children, automobiles, leisure, and savings.
Future of Freedom Foundation 11/13
- Deal 'close' on prescription-drug bill -
Republican negotiators have pushed to include three provisions key to winning House conservatives' support: requiring Medicare at some point to compete directly against private health plans, providing some sort of mechanism aimed at holding down Medicare costs if they get too high, and creating tax-preferred health savings accounts that encourage people to save for their medical costs.
Washington Times 11/12
- More retirees still paying mortgages -
A USA TODAY analysis of census data shows that 28.3% of homeowners age 65 or older owe on their homes. That's up from 20.7% in 1990, and 18.9% in 1980. The trend probably has intensified since data were collected in 2000, says Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft.
USA Today 11/10
- A step forward for elderly -
Balance: A scientist has developed vibrating insoles that he says will reduce the number of injurious tumbles taken by old people.A Boston University researcher thinks he has found a way to reduce the falls that injure and kill thousands of elderly people each year.
Baltimore Sun 11/10
- House GOP trolls for votes on Medicare drug bill -
Negotiators in the House and Senate are hoping early this week to finalize a bill that would reform Medicare and create a new prescription-drug benefit for seniors.
Washington Times 11/10
- Lifetime/Retirement Savings Accounts -
Last January, President Bush proposed Lifetime and Retirement Savings Accounts so that families can save without being punished. Currently after income taxes, individuals are not taxed if they spend money, only if they save. As such, personal savings of working Americans is dangerously low. If a catastrophic medical expense occurs or an emergency happens, many families are left with no savings. The Bush proposal addresses this problem by not punishing families who save and creating a level playing field through two new consolidated savings accounts: Lifetime Savings Accounts (LSAs) and Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs). Savings will accumulate without incurring a double tax when savings are withdrawn.
E-mail Alert - Americans For Tax Reform 11/10
- Social Security This Week -
NCPA Study Confirms: Accounts Progressive for Women; Accrual Accounting Method Restores Accurate Fiscal Picture;
Personal Retirement Accounts Allow Optimal Choice; Younger Voters Can Sway Politicians
Cato Institute 11/09
- Report: Nurses at risk working long hours -
A new report by the National Academy of Sciences says patients are being endangered by nurses who are required to work more than 12 hours a day.
The New York Times said Wednesday the study, commissioned by the federal government, notes such long hours cause fatigue, reduce productivity and increase the risk the nurses will make mistakes that harm patients.
The report said many hospital and nursing home nurses and their nursing assistants work more than 12 consecutive hours, with some working double shifts of 16 hours.
Washington Times 11/06
- Abuse of the elderly to be investigated by MPs -
MPs on the Commons Select Committee on Health are to investigate the mistreatment of elderly people in care homes and by family members.
Independent UK 11/06
- Analysis: Medicare first, then Medicaid -
Republicans, ..., want to give the states more flexibility and less government regulation, while trying to push more money toward keeping people out of nursing homes -- which account for $60 billion in Medicaid spending -- and into community programs or home care.
Washington Post 11/06
- Bush Backs Medicare Spending Limits -
"The Bush administration joined House Republicans on Monday in pushing a proposal that would force Congress to vote on possible cutbacks in Medicare if the costs of the program, including new drug benefits, grow faster than expected," The New York Times reports. "The plan would also set limits on the use of general tax revenue for Medicare."
Cato Institute 11/04
- War between the Generations - Federal Spending on the Elderly Set to Explode -
In the 20th century politicians replaced personal savings, family obligations, and private charities with giant centralized transfer systems to support the elderly. The main programs for the elderly, Social Security and Medicare, are primarily funded by taxes on the young.
Cato Institute 11/04