By Washington Correspondent Paul Verrall
with Medical Editor Vincent Boom-Batz, M.D.
A friend this week received an official looking envelope from our United States Government. It looked important, so she opened it.
This is the letter she got:
My friend is not accustomed to nor pleased about receiving letters from the Mad King, so her first reaction was “What the f***?”
That seems like the right question.
Let's start with some arithmetic. Last year, our friend paid $2,220 in Medicare premiums. Because she is still working part-time, she also paid $412 in Medicare taxes. Our crack interns inform us that the total of those two sums is $2,632. The $90 rebate represents a 3.4% reduction in her Medicare costs.
By the way, as every Medicare recipient knows, Medicare premiums rise every year. For 2027, the projected increase is $79.20, leaving our friend $10.80 ahead thanks to the Mad King's generosity.
$10.80. That's quite the bribe.
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| Medicare recipients thrilled about their 3.4% rebate |
Already some pundits are offering suggestions on how to spend the $90 windfall (before almost $80 is taken away next year in higher premiums). The Boston Globe's Renee Loth suggested contributing to the Greater Boston Food Bank, Health Care for All, or immigrants' rights groups like Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.
Can't quibble with any of her choices.
But this shabby cheap pre-election bribe from the Mad King deserves a closer look, even as it has been overshadowed this week by more evidence of his physical and mental collapse, the insane hiring and firing of some dolt as Press Secretary, and his treasonous decision not only to exempt Russia from the sanctions in the bill he just signed into law but also to cripple Ukraine's ability to defend itself against Russian aggression by throttling its Starlink access.
The letter tells the putative bribee that “Congress provided 2 Billion dollars to make improvements in the Medicare program for Americans enrolled in traditional Medicare.”
This represents a refreshing change for the Mad King, who usually acts without any hint of Congressional authorization in matters such as knocking down a wing of the White House, sending immigrants to El Salvadoran torture centers, or using the military to commit murder on the high seas.
For almost 20 years, Congress has appropriated varying amounts of money for the Medicare Improvements Fund. The money is supposed to used for
improvements...or individuals entitled to, or enrolled for, benefits under part A or enrolled under part B.” [This]...include[s] “adjustments to payments for items and services furnished by providers of services and suppliers under such original Medicare fee-for-service program.
That's pretty broad language, but it's hard to see how sending minute rebate checks is consistent with Congress's intent. If Congress wanted to cut Medicare premiums, it could have done so. Obviously it intended the money to be used to improve health care for Medicare recipients, not to allow them to buy nine packs of Winstons or 18 scratch lottery tickets.
In fact, the bribe and the accompanying letter are taxpayer-funding campaign propaganda for the Mad King and incidentally his Republican stooges. Notice the date of the letter.
Unrelated to the Medicare rebate but related to his increasingly sweaty efforts to sway the miderms are the Mad King's lies, contained in the letter, about how much money we are saving from his empty prescription drug programs, designed to obscure the fact that because the Republican Party is bought and paid for by Big Pharma, we pay far higher drug costs than citizens of any other Western nation, as people who drive into Canada to afford insulin and other life-saving drugs already know.
Here's the chart, based on OECD data and compiled by The Commonwealth Fund:
Nearly double? Boy that $90 will really compensate us Medicare recipients for excess pharma profits. Not.
The mainstream media's reaction to this brazenly political corrupt plunder of tax dollars to advance the fortunes of miserable Mad King flunkies and enablers has been predictably thunderous. To be fair, NBC News pointed out that the $90 kiss was a break from the other promised Mad King rebates that never materialized. The AP helpfully noted that two-thirds of Medicare enrollees won't get a dime.
But the newspaper of record buried the $90 checks deep in a story about the proposed Social Security cost of living increase for 2027, although it did point out (like us) that the 2027 Medicare premium increase will consume almost all of the windfall.
No one seems to have warned that in seven years the Medicare Trust Fund will be exhausted, which means if nothing is done, Medicare benefits won't be paid. (Funny how this fate never seems to befall the Defense Department Trust Fund, which is now running trillion-dollar deficits).
You might think that someone might have pointed out the folly of issuing election year bribes instead of replenishing the fund that keeps Medicare in business, but if you're the Mad King, his Republican toadies and wipers, or even our great liberal media, your survival depends on not stating obvious truths.
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