For the first time in history, the Democratic Congress will not allow an increase in the social security COLA (cost of living adjustment).

In fact, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation predicts there may not be any COLA for the next three years.

However, the per person monthly Medicare insurance premium will be increased from the 2009 premium of $96.40 to $104.20 in 2010 and to $ 120.20 for the year 2011.

Please contact your representatives and let it be known how you feel. This not only effects every senior citizen on social security, but every disabled person TRYING to live on SSDI (social security disability insurance).

If you referring to Advantage Plans these changes have not been put into law yet. The proposed healthcare plans HR 3200 and then latest one from Sen Baccus also has provisions in it that would eliminate all Advantage plans.

It sounds like you are not on SSDI. Anyone, including myself, that is forced to live on it, is usually is in need of a lot of medical care. Without the advantage plan to pick up the slack, I will not be able to afford the doctors I now see. I have RSD and it only gets worse; not better. I live on around $1,000 a month. My husband is also disabled. We have used every penny of our savings on healthcare, mostly prescriptions and therapy.

This whole business that is being proposed will effect people like me the most. I wish people would understand that even if you are healthy today, stuff happens.........I was a successful, highly paid consultant when I got RSD (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy). Never in a million years did I dream I would not be able to support my family. Accidents and illness strike people every day. Now I am forced to make decisions every month between groceries or medicine.

No one in this country should ever be put in such a position. My husband and myself paid a lot of money into social security for over 40yrs. Now, when we need it, the government is giving a SMAll percentage of the money we put into the system. It is not welfare or charity. I earned every penny and more!

And, now they are trying to reduce my benefits even more. When will it stop??????????????

Yes, the Advantage plans pick up the cost of lots of things bare bones medicare doesn't. I don't even pay a premium with mine. If you notice on medicare, most of things you get are 20% co-pays. With my Advantage plan my primary visits are $0 and specialists $30. All my generic meds are covered 100%! Then they have reasonable co-pays for the others ranging from $8 to $60 for the really new expensive ones. My fentanyl patches are $360 a box without insurance and I use 2 patches every 2 days! You can see how expensive it would be on medicare. I pay $0.....
Yes, if your husband has insurance and you have medicare as long as your doctor takes medicare patients (which is getting harder and harder to find) you can use both and diminish your co-pays altogether. It is called subrogration of benefits. You are very fortunate to have this and you wouldn't really need an Advantage/Supplemental plan . Your medicare would pay first and then the rest can be picked up by your husband's insurance. Again, you MUST find a doctor to accept medicare. I have found this to be a HUGE problem. And, if any of the current Democratic bills get passed, it is going to be even harder. They will be cutting the reimbursements to doctors and doctors will flat stop accepting patients like me who do not have "regular" insurance. My husband is also disabled so medicare with the Advantage plan is all we have access to.

That's why I watch this so closely. It was also my occupation before I became ill. I used to install and setup automated Human resource systems for company's. So, I am very familiar with the way insurance benefits work.

I'll be glad to answer any other questions you have or tell you where you can get more info.

This is how they work. I pay $96 every month for my medicare right now. In January it goes up to $104.20. That's for my straight medicare insurance. I pay $0 my Advantage plan. The government pays my Advantage plan company (Humana)using the money I pay ($96) plus they also kick in additional. That is why they want to cut them out; to save money. When and if they get their way, I will no longer have the ability to get all the meds I need and certainly not any durable medical equipment. It is way too expensive for me to pay the 20%. That's where the business about "killing Grandma" came in. Congress won't directly say you can't have this stuff. However, because I can't afford it without help from the Advantage plan, indirectly they will be sentencing me to an earlier death because of the lack of medicine, tests, procedures and equipment that I need. As you know, RSD does not get better and there is no cure. It is not like in a year or 2 I will be better and not need this help. I have no idea how much worse i will be next year. But it will not matter because i will no longer be able to get new treatments as they become available or new medicine. It will be out of my reach financially!

What makes me so mad is that I have paid over 40yrs in this system and now when I need it, the congress is trying to take it away from me. And it is mine!!! How dare they.

If I did not have the Advantage plan, my wheelchair would have cost me thousands of dollars in a co-pay (20%). Because of my plan, I was able to get the wheelchair I needed for $0. If I would have had to pay the co-payment, I would not have one today. The monthly disability check I get is barely enough to live on.

Most of the major company's have Advantage plans. They are not created equal so make sure the one you pick has the meds you take on their formulary. Before my current plan, I had a different company and I ended up paying $420 a month in co-pays for my meds. That's why i switched to Humana. Humana has all different levels of plans. Some you pay for, some are free. Really, most of the major heathcare company's have the same. I'm not really pushing Humana cause they have their problems too. lol

The Bacchus plan also proposes cutting $500 billion dollars from medicare and to no longer have Advantage plans. The only thing left if the Dems get their way in congress (and they are the ruling majority) will be straight medicare. That's why I said I would no longer get the things I need. I can't afford the co-pays and deductibles. I really don't know what will happen. As of yesterday, an amendment was added to the Bacchus proposal to add the public option back in. Also, NO proposals from this point forward will be posted on the internet for the public to read! They do not want us to know what is being proposed. They say we are too stupid to understand the "legal" terminology! That is the most offensive thing I have ever heard!What supreme arrogance!

Even without a new healthcare bill starting in Jan 2010 the doctors reimbursement is going to be cut 20%. My doctors say they will no longer be able to afford to take medicare patients.

There have been many republican bills proposed. All of them have been turned down by the dems. None of them can even go to the floor for debate.

In the repub versions, there is no public option. They want to go for the things like tort reform, cutting out fraud and waste, no pre-existing conditions, and just insuring the approx 15 mil people who want insurance and have not been able to get it for various reasons. All things that I agree need to be addressed. But, why blow up the entire system when some changes need to be made. The lawyers will never allow tort reform. They are lobbying like crazy to prevent this from happening!

I live in Las Vegas and Harry Reid is going down next year! The question is how much damage can he do before that? I have written so many emails to him, John Ensign and the Whitehouse. I hope it does some good, but I am not optimistic. But, if I don't try I could not live with myself. It is all so wrong what they are trying to do. I cannot believe this is happening to us in the United States.

What do you mean eliminate premium increases? I'm confused again.

What are your thoughts on health care reform?

Do you think it is needed?

Do you think a government option is a good or bad thing? If so, why?

Do you think they should just allow the private health companies to cover everyone and get rid of the pre-existing clauses?

What do you think would be the best option?

How do you think it should be paid for?

This video shows one of the biggest reasons I do not want the government to run a nationalized healthcare system.

They cannot manage medicare; what makes anyone think that by doing the same thing over and over again the end result will be different?

Clean up the waste and fraud. Show me. Then, we can talk about it.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/wa...?id=5414400n&tag=api

I keep writing the president and I finally did receive a response regarding the health care bills.

It's really scary!!!!!

I do not want the government involved at all. They need to keep there fingers out of it. Anytime the government gets involved it becomes costly, filled with what's in it for me people, and the goals are always lost!!!
Such as what has hapened to the bills that are being presented. They are no longer staying focused on offering health insurance to everyone. The bills if passed will not cover the people they were intended to. The impact on small business will be too great, that includes the physicians that we want to have access too.

One bill wants to limit doctors to choosing tests, what the heck, or there could be a penalty!
Could you imagine a person who hasn't been identified with RSD or another unknown difficult to diagnosis condition, if you get two expensive test, then test three the doctor has to decide if he's going to be paid or not!

You can't tie the hands of health care this way. It's difficult enough dealing with PPO's who try to strangle your choices in doctors and medications. Doctors try to work the insurance system now to get you the best healthcare without it costing you an arm and a leg. Most just want you to be healthy and it's difficult to make a diagnosis in 15 minutes.
Things need to change, insurance policies need to change. There's a better way to cut costs. Everyone should be insured and there has to be a way that can leave competiveness and available healthcare without government fingers crossing into tha realm as the insurer rather than making certain that everyone is playing fair.

I want the bills to be scrapped and them to start over and increment bills, not bring in the oversized mega bills that no one knows for certain what has been attached to it signed into law bills. They need to bring in change a piece at a time. They also need to clean up the other messes that already exist that would help the burden that is already part of the problem, rather than adding to the problem.

Social Security, --- clean it up, people that are dying that are approved still are on the waiting list for aid for as much as 6 moinths or more. They are dead before they are approved for one payment. There's nothing that anyone can do until the rules/laws are changed!!!!!!!!! Fix the stupidity. Permanent disabilities are no different. There's no reason why anyone should loose everything they have worked so hard for because the government chooses to make you wait for assistance. Why?? What nonsense is that!
Fix it.

I've signed up for the FDA/CDC sites and I receive updates and some of those updates are related to leagal information which include when they have cracked cases of abuse of the system. I see more and more of those cases and it's good to know that this is happening and sad to know that it's been happening. This includes doctors, pharmacists, manufactures nurses who are fined, or jailed for the activities related to the abuses such as mislabeling of drugs, over charging to medicare/medicaid, generic related manufacturing issues.

Anyway, write the White House. It's a good thing to voice your concerns.

Anyone seen the SPECIFICS of this bill yet? Is it posted anywhere or is this another secret/behind closed doors? I'm eager to see what they have done.

I started reading the day it came out. It is BAD.....I don't know where to start. $500 BILLION cuts to medicare. No more Advantage plans....I would not have my wheelchair today without my Advantage plan. Or my TENS unit or many other "durable medical equipment". Rates will increase for everyone. If you do not buy insurance, the fine is high and if you do not pay it, jail time is the next step. Can you imagine going to PRISON for not buying health insurance! The IRS will be monitoring this part. I found the easiest way to read this is to search for keywords. Otherwise, you'll never get through the whole bill. Adobe Acrobat also has a "read outloud" feature you can turn on. It will actually read the bill outloud to you. Very cool!

I'm not surprised they did what they did. They are pushing this through because the Dem's know they are going to lose in the next election so they have to shove as much through as possible before then.

I'm not surprised that they are screwing the disabled or the old. I don't know why people thought this would be "free" or that somehow the "rich" were going to pick up the entire tab.

What is even scarier is to see what they are going to do with our actual healthcare. Nothing is free. It scares me to think of what I may be stuck with if i can't go back to work.

I've been reading through this. Didn't anybody read any of the bills? Anyone? seriously? Did they think it would all be roses, just everything was free just like the media said? I need to stop reading. I'm giving myself a headache but it's like a trainwreck. You don't want to watch but you can't stop.

I'm praying the stupid Senate doesn't pass this. Notice NO ONE ever explained what "affordable" or "sliding scale" really are? No numbers just words.

Hi Colleen,

Here's one link http://www.sandypost.com...y_id=127005465935069400

I'll add more as I'm finding them



Here's another....

http://www.medpagetoday....ngton-Watch/Reform/19351

This is so nauseating. I can't believe they are doing this to the elderly and disabled. Why on earth anyone on medicare or SSDI would want this crap is beyond me. Not sure why they all think they will get a free ride. We will all dearly pay for this. We will pay for it for hundreds of years now.

I'm glad that I will be able to keep cobra for a while and not have to use Medicare. Well, who knows with all this crap though.

Trudy,
when you start the daily updates start a new topic for it. This one has gotten pretty long. I'm so glad we have you. you stay on top of this much better than me.

We have to find a way to stop this and undo the damage already done. What are the requirements for impeachment?

Colleen
We would love to see it when you are finished!

Hugs