IMPROVING MEDICARE

WHEREAS, healthcare costs and healthcare programs across the United States continue to rise, which is a concern to all Americans; and

WHEREAS, Medicare successfully provides healthcare to more than 44 million American people over 65 years old and people with disabilities; and

WHEREAS, Medicare Part C, better known as Medicare Advantage, on average receives overpayments from 12 percent to 19 percent, compared to the traditional Medicare program; and

WHEREAS, Medicare Advantage plans, which are private plans, add to Medicare costs and accelerate Medicare’s solvency problems and increase costs to beneficiaries; and

WHEREAS, the 2008 Medicare Trustee report projects that the trust funds have lost two full years of solvency due in part to overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans; and

WHEREAS, every beneficiary, whether or not he or she is enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, pays an additional two dollars monthly in Part B premiums, nearly 70 percent of the year’s premium increase—because of higher payments to Medicare Advantage plans; and

WHEREAS, older Americans are 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for 42 percent of spending on prescription drugs; and

WHEREAS, the secretary of Health and Human Services is prohibited by law from negotiating lower prescription drug prices or establishing a universal Medicare-administered prescription drug plan; and

WHEREAS, the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 made far-reaching changes to other parts of Medicare that are not easily understood but have dramatic long-term impact on how the program operates, and on its relationship to the millions of older Americans Medicare provides; and

WHEREAS, for the first time in the program’s history, Medicare Part B premiums are subject to means testing, linking premium levels to beneficiaries’ incomes, thus eroding over time the social insurance nature of the Medicare program, resulting in increased costs for all beneficiaries; and

WHEREAS, employers continue to shift the cost of healthcare to their current and retired employees by increasing premiums and co-payments:

RESOLVED, that Medicare Advantage plans be paid at the same rate as traditional Medicare; and

RESOLVED, that the secretary of HHS be given the authority to negotiate prescription drug prices in Medicare and to establish a national Medicare-administered prescription drug plan as an option for Part D participants; and

RESOLVED, that the United States allow the re-importation of prescription drugs, manufactured under conditions that meet U.S. FDA standards, into the country; and

RESOLVED, that to preserve Medicare as a universal health insurance program, means testing be eliminated from the Medicare program.