Medicare Deductible Proposal Ignites Protest

* The Senate Finance Committee’s proposal to make high-income retirees pay a modest deductible for Medicare (June 19) has brought a firestorm of protest from greedy seniors groups. What is this frightful proposal? Seniors earning less than $50,000 are untouched, and a sliding scale applies to those above that income. Those earning $50,000, for example, would pay 1% of their income in deductible.

I am constantly amazed at the spoils demanded by the senior lobby. It doesn’t faze them that every worker pitches nearly 1.5% of his or her salary into Medicare, even those struggling to get by on far less than $50,000. They don’t care that 13 cents out of every dollar spent by the federal government goes to Medicare, and that it’s the fastest growing federal program.

It’s time for Congress to insist that wealthy retirees share a portion of the costs they can afford.

ERIC W. ROSE

Thousand Oaks

* Your June 19 editorial position on Medicare seems to me to be unfair, shortsighted and counterproductive. Unfair, because Medicare was never presented as welfare that would depend on one’s income. Affluent taxpayers should not be penalized, especially since they have paid in more to this and the Social Security system than the public at large.

Your position is shortsighted. It affects just 4% of the Medicare recipients, you state. This tiny minority cannot cure the deficit. Progressively more of us will be affected.

It is also counterproductive. It represents one more way to discourage people from working diligently and from thrift. Who will drive the economy if entrepreneurs find leisure to be a more attractive alternative?

VICTOR L. COLE

Rancho Palos Verdes

* “HMO Patients Deserve Broader Rights on Care” (editorial, June 18) emphasizes that the government has focused on protecting managed-care patients while leaving fee-for-service patients defenseless. Medicare has only in recent years added preventive health services such as pap smears and screening mammograms to their benefits.

Is the Medicare hotline for fee-for-service patients widely publicized? Can Medicare patients call to find out within 72 hours if Medicare will cover their anticipated test or surgery? Who is protecting the seniors from fee-for-service bills not covered by Medicare? And who is addressing the problem of seniors unable to afford needed medicines priced beyond their fixed budget?

Regulating HMOs may make headlines, but the 85% of seniors not in managed care could use a little attention from lawmakers as well.

MARVIN J. GORDON MD

Laguna Beach