There Goes the Senior Vote

Well, this isn't good news for one's reelection bid, better get this out Friday afternoon when nobody pays attention:

Medicare premiums for doctor visits will rise 17 percent next year, the Bush administration said Friday. The $11.60-a-month increase is the largest in the program’s 40-year-history...

Monthly payments for Part B of the government health care program for older and disabled Americans — doctor visits and most other non-hospital expenses — will jump to $78.20 from $66.60...

The increase reflects rapidly rising health costs and last year’s Medicare overhaul, said Dr. Mark McClellan, administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. For example, the law blocked a planned 4.5 percent cut in Medicare payments to physicians and replaced it with a 1.5 percent increase.

The administration, seeking political advantage among older voters, has tried to depict the Medicare law, with its first-ever prescription drug benefit, as a boon to seniors.

“The new premiums reflect an enhanced Medicare that is providing seniors and people with disabilities with strengthened access to physician services and new preventive benefits,” McClellan said.

But Democrats and other critics have derided the law as a giveaway to insurers, drug makers and medical providers.

Timing of news release draws criticism
The timing of the release — the day following the Republican convention, just before the Labor Day weekend and with a hurricane bearing down on Florida and its nearly 3 million Medicare recipients — drew criticism Friday.

“This is a cynical attempt to bury bad news by leaking it out when you hope no one is watching,” said Rep. Fortney “Pete” Stark, D-Calif. “This administration has had four years to improve Medicare and instead have made it worse. Today’s news reflects the reality, not rhetoric, of this administration’s bad record on Medicare.”