These findings will fall in the memory hole, as servant to the master, Obama, refers to it as "waste" and searches for more "waste" cutting to preserve the interests & lifestyle of the class he serves.

The article does not mention that these "managed care" plans would not exist if the government did not subsidize them.

It's a well known fact, at least to ordinary (not the rich ones in high places) seniors, that we've become the dregs at the bottom of the barrel, and first in line to suffer government cuts to the budget. Education shares that space with us. When enough voices of protest in our behalf can be silenced, the dregs will simply be discarded altogether.

Follow the trajectory: Health Care is an Extraction Industry, no different than the creatures who destroy mountain tops. The object of the game is to extract EVERYTHING and when it's gone it's gone. Cut Cut Cut EVERYTHING and RAISE the costs till the victims have no money to pay then let them die. America kills 45000 people this way every year and the number rises each year, like the cost of food. Notice the targets: Black People, Poor People, and folks with chronic conditions. This is the cutting edge of Demographic Collapse and the start of Die Back in the US.

RULE: First you do the "low hanging fruit" - then you ratchet up the food chain.

All those good Americans who were content to throw others under the bus as long as they "had their piece" are about to find their names prominently featured on the Menu of our little Cannibalistic Blood Feast for the richfilth animals.

AND THE APOLOGISTS FOR THIS FILTH, up to the WH have made themselves, by their words and actions, our ENEMIES. What do you call folks who think they can get rich by murdering you and your children?

In my opinion, it should be strongly noted that health insurance premiums and co-pays have increased dramatically since the sited study(2001 - 2006). The senior citizens I know, who have Medicare but also have supplementary health insurance to cover the costs Medicare does not, have seen an average 46% increase in their premiums and 100% increase in their co-pays. Their prescription drug costs and co-pays have also increased within that same range(46 - 100%) but also with substantial changes in prescription drugs covered by their Medicare Part D plans.

How can Social Security tell recipients they won't see a COLA(cost of living adjustment) this year as they(the government) determined there to be no inflation?

For those who are presently working, and still have employer provided health insurance and prescription drug coverage, I am relatively certain they too have found, or will soon find, their contribution costs, co-pays and restrictions have increased substantially also.

For senior citizens who rely solely or heavily on their Social Security and Medicare benefits, these outrageous increases in costs this year(2010) alone will devastate their lives and the lives of their families(if they have any).

Things have changed since the sited study(2001 - 2006). They've changed a lot ... and not for the better. Senior citizens had to make incredible adjustments in their lives during those years. Now, and since that study ... most of them have nowhere to adjust to. They've already reduced their purchases of food. They've already adjusted their thermostats ... higher for less air conditioning and lower for less heating. Whatever they've saved by denying themselves food and comfort has easily been paid out to insurance and drug companies.

Wait and see what happens when they reach the prescription drug 'donut hole'. The 'donut hole' is going to be reached a lot quicker and for greater numbers of senior citizens since the drug costs have increased so much. If they want their drugs they're going to have to pay full price for them. This is quite a windfall for the drug companies. What family would allow a family member to go without their necessary prescription drugs? So, the drug companies will get their money one way or another indirectly applying further downward pressure on already debt stressed working class America.

All citizens should be ashamed and alarmed. Someday soon this will be you! Don't think so? Think your future is so secure? Want to gamble? It's a crap shoot and the house always wins!

Many posters pointed the way before the presidential election remember, now which party supports single-payer?...is it the Democrats?...No...Is it the Republicans?...No...Now what was the name of the party that is for single payer universal healthcare? It must have slipped my mind...

Anyway wouldn't it make sense to vote for them instead of the two parties that are openly against setting up what Obama called the best system?, with a proven track record all over the world?

Yesterday I mailed off my letter declining Part B, Medicare.
I've been laid off, and won't be able to afford the cost after my unemployment ends. A friend checked into local and state resources that I might access, but even at that, it's food and shelter versus medical care insurance. I was slightly mollified in this awful decision, by the fact that I recently sought medical care at the local clinic that provides care for baseline Medicare people. Almost everyone who can afford it, buys something else in addition to Medicare Part B, and the reams of paper spewing forth prices and options are astounding. My mailbox is full of them. On the net, I scroll endlessly down, looking at all the different plans I can buy.
Just one catch. You gotta be able to buy in, otherwise, Congressman Grayson had it almost right, it's not Drop Dead Quickly, because your suffering is irrelevant, it's very much,
Drop Dead Quietly.

I'm 67 years old. I worked harder than any senator. These congresspeople have balls. They are freezing Medicare to buy more bombs. It was I and people like me who generated all this wealth. I want my SS, Medicare, Medicaid, and a single payer health care system.

Insurance companies are rich because of me and people like me. They use the money they took from me to bribe legislators to vote against my best interest.

Their profits increase as health care for their policy holders degenerates. And make no mistake, they are some greedy, heartless, cruel bastards.

Oops!
Sorry, meant to add, the local clinic said,
No one will see you.

That's when I decided that being at the bottom of the medicare food chain was probably not going to work out well for me.

So for medical care I've learned there are 3 places:
the ER, a for profit walk in clinic, and in my area, a not for profit.

I had been under the impression that everyone got Medicare, and profit was finally out of the picture.

I was wrong. Medicare needs to be fixed. No buy in cost, but instead a revenue stream from general taxes and the middle man out. Single payer absolutely

Raising the co-pays on those who need health care the most is shifting the cost burden in exactly the WRONG direction. As an American living in Canada I have often asked Canadians complaining of long waits in walk-in clinics because of people coming to see a doctor for every hang nail and pimple (a slight exaggeration here) why they don't just add a $15 co-pay for an office visit. It could be waived for the poor and elderly, but it would cut back on spurious doctor visits, unclogging the system a little. The usual response I get is something like, "that would make us too much like the American system". I understand the sentiment. But isn't the "healthiest" society one that places MORE (not less) of the responsibility on those who can afford it rather than on those who can't? Whatever happened to "to whom much has been given, much shall be required"? - or don't the 'good Christians' in America follow their own Teacher anymore? (that's a rhetorical question).

Ok so a few questions about single payer system.
1) who pays for it?
2) who sets the standard of care?
3) who regulates it?
4) who runs it?
5) who decides what Dr. is right for me?
6) who approves the next level of care should I need or not need it?
8) Are all Dr's to follow only one set of standards or do they get to choose what is best for the patient?

Feel free to add anything I missed, basically why should the country sign off on a single payer system over the option of choosing for yourself who/what/when/where/why/how?

For the powers that be "waste" refers to anyone, whether working, retired or unemployed, who requires any amount of public support, such that, there's less in the treasury for bailouts to banksters and tax reductions for corporations and the super-rich. And as mentioned by other posters the purpose of these co-pay increases is to waste (as in best they drop dead) those of us who receive public support and no matter that said support is the return on one's lifelong payroll deductions. Obama's goal (with his budget cuts) is to sell the American people on means tests for seniors, with no public funds forthcoming to individual seniors until they are reduced to poverty status, whereupon, it'll be up to one's private insurance company's death panel as to who lives and who dies, Our government's explanation for this policy will be something like "Yes, it's true, but we had no choice, what with all these terrorist threats. After all national security comes first". Sound familiar? What's the answer? That we rise up en masse and change the world, with we being seniors, the more than 50 percent of Americans who are either unemployed, &/or in danger of foreclosure or already foreclosed upon, &/or panic-stricken for fear of losing their jobs, &/or unable to afford an education because of tuition increases, &/or living in rural areas where the only work available is in prisons or signing up with the military, not to mention the millions of folks in our inner cities, scorned, beaten-down, discarded and left on their own. Said uprising can begin on commondreams. How? We spread the word, that's how