MEDICARE: To Preserve and Protect

When Vice President Biden went home to Delaware a few weekends ago, the first thing his 92-year-old mother said to him was, "Joey, what about these death panels?"

"It's hokum," Biden said, "It's bunch of malarkey."

No one, no panel, is going to sit down and tell your doctor or you how to make these decisions, he explained. Health reform is about "giving you more power and your doctor more power" to make the decisions that are best for you.

If the Vice-President's own mother is hearing rumors about death panels, it's no wonder seniors, as a group, are among those most skeptical of health reform.

Helping to dispel these fears and sell the benefits of reform, the Vice President spoke Wednesday at a retirement community in Montgomery County, Maryland. Assisted by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and White House Director of Health Reform Nancy-Ann DeParle, the Vice President laid out how reforms will protect and strengthen senior's Medicare.

Many of the key points from the discussion are outlined in a new report from the White House on Health Insurance Reform and Medicare. The report tackles questions seniors may have such as:

• How will reducing subsidies to Medicare Advantage plans affect me? The government overpays Medicare Advantage plans by about 14 percent. These subsidies don't lead to better quality care for Seniors, but they do make it more expensive. "Cutting the fat off the bone," as President Biden said, will extend the life of the Medicare Trust Fund, and ensure that dollars go toward improving care for seniors, not increasing profits for insurers.
• How will health insurance reform make my care more affordable? By closing the gap in prescription drug coverage, health reform will keep money in seniors' pockets. By making preventive services, like mammograms other screenings, free, health reform will keep seniors healthy while avoiding more costly treatments down the road. "If we keep you healthier longer, you cost less money ," Biden said. Significant savings can also be found pursuing waste, fraud and abuse. As Secretary Sebelius noted, in just 8 months, almost $3 billion has been recovered.
• Will health insurance reform actually improve my care? One in five Medicare patients discharged from a hospital are readmitted within 30 days. Health reform will provide incentives for hospitals to reduce these costly and often preventable readmissions. It will also provide incentives for innovations in primary care that in will increase coordination, improve quality, and reduce costs by keeping people out of the hospital.
• Will I have a choice of doctor? Without health reform, Medicare physicians are scheduled to receive a 21 percent pay cut in 2010. Health reform will eliminate the physician pay cut, while making investments primary care, underserved areas, and health care workforce.
• Will Medicare be there for me in the future? Without reform, the Medicare Part A Trust Fund will be exhausted by 2017. Health reform will extend the solvency of the Trust Fund while delivery system reforms have the potential to bend the cost curve and preserve Medicare's long term sustainability.

Biden, who "spent his career protecting and defending Medicare," noted that Medicare is projected to spend $6 trillion dollars over the next ten years. The proposed savings from Medicare that would be used to help finance reform amount to just 7 percent of that total. "We're going to find those savings in a way that will in no way affect your benefits," Biden said, concluding: "I know you can fight like hell for things you believe in, and I know right now we need you to stand up and fight for Medicare again."