Maurice Hinchey: “last Thursday President Bush got up on his $2.5 million podium and crowed about how his Medicare reform bill was making…”

“last Thursday President Bush got up on his $2.5 million podium and crowed about how his Medicare reform bill was making health care more affordable for seniors. But less than 24 hours later, this administration announced the largest increase in Medicare premiums in history. Beginning in January, retirees and the disabled will see their Medicare premiums rise by $11.60 per month, to $78.20. That is an increase of 17 percent. It comes on the heels of last year's whopping 14 percent increase. The Bush administration deliberately tried to bury this bad news, releasing the information late on Friday in the midst of a hurricane and leading up to a long holiday weekend. They did that in the hopes that seniors would not notice. The Social Security COLA will not be generous either. That is why the Bush administration needed to stifle news coverage about the Medicare premium increase. The Social Security trustees have predicted a 1.3 percent COLA for 2005. For a retiree receiving the average benefit of $895, that amounts to a monthly increase of $11.64. After Medicare's premiums go up, seniors will be left with an additional 4 cents per month to handle rising expenses. Seniors have increasing housing costs, high gas prices, rising grocery bills and the prospects of record heating bills this winter, just like everyone else. Does 4 cents a month sound like enough of a cost-of-living increase to cover inflation and expenses?”