Bobo fully embraces the Romney today, giving him not only a kiss on the lips with tongue, but a tug job:
In the Marx Brothers movie that is the Republican presidential race, Mitt Romney is Zeppo. He doesn’t spin out one-liners. He’s not the rambunctious one. He’s just the earnest, good-looking guy who wants to be appreciated.
But Romney continues to run an impressive presidential campaign. Last week, while the Twitterverse was entranced by Herman Cain, Romney delivered his most important speech yet. It was politically astute and substantively bold, a quality you don’t automatically associate with the Romney campaign. Romney grasped the toughest issue — how to reform entitlements to avoid a fiscal catastrophe — and he sketched out a sophisticated way to address it.
No one could have predicted that what would bring Bobo around would be screwing the middle class. It gets worse:
Romney proposed keeping Medicare just as it is for everybody currently in or close to the system. But he would slowly introduce a premium support system, with less-affluent beneficiaries receiving more support than more-affluent ones.
Many reporters claimed that the Romney approach is similar to the Paul Ryan plan. It’s actually closer to the plan that Pete Domenici, a former Republican senator, and Alice Rivlin, a former Clinton budget chief, devised. Romney would create a premium support system, but he would also give seniors the option of a government-run insurance plan that works a lot like the current fee-for-service Medicare.
This is politically smart because Democrats cannot legitimately charge that Romney is “ending Medicare.” But it is also substantively smart because, while people like me believe that intense competition among private insurers will lead to more innovation and cost reduction, we can’t really be sure. The Romney approach sets up a prudent experiment. If real competition works, seniors will migrate toward that. If it doesn’t, seniors will stay in Medicare and conservatives will have a lot of rethinking to do.
It sounds like the Ryan plan because it is- just switch the phrase “premium support” with the word “voucher.” And no serious plan exempts current Medicare recipients- if it is going to work, make it work for everyone. No more of this intergenerational bribery.
I’ll just leave this space blank for the inevitable Charles Pierce link.
Mnemosyne
I’m just amused that apparently Brooks thinks that calling Romney the Zeppo is a compliment.
barath
Well, Bobo’s latest isn’t much better than last week’s offering of his eternal wisdom on energy issues, with plenty of environmentalist punching to go around.
I had sent Doug this last week in response (most of the links removed to get through moderation):
I’m sure you know plenty about the problems with fracking, but a brief rundown includes the following. First, the obvious environmental impacts are horrendous as documented in Gasland. Second, but less obvious, are the indirect impacts including the fact that fracking may leak so much natural gas that the process is worse than using coal from a climate perspective. Third, natural gas drilling, like a lot of things these days, is driven in part by a speculative bubble, in which Wall Street favors “booked reserves” (natural gas that can be claimed to be under the ground at some well) rather than whether those booked reserves are profitable, leading to perverse incentives in which companies will drill unproductive wells to book reserves – here’s a bit more from an oil/gas industry veteran and a longer expose from the Times itself. Fourth, it’s unlikely to be a viable alternative in the long term because it doesn’t directly substitute for oil. This study goes through many of the infrequently-discussed issues with natural gas.
The other issue is his sources, who should have been discredited long ago. Daniel Yergin is the best example of that. You’d think after this comprehensive takedown of Yergin by The Oil Drum in 2008 he’d have learned his lesson, but no, his recent media blitz (say, his full-page article in the Wall Street Journal a month ago claiming that there is no such thing as peak oil) says otherwise. But of course he didn’t actually get his facts straight, and thus missed the big picture.
Samara Morgan
Do you know who doesnt support Romney?
Erik the son of Erik
Mitt Romney as the Nominee: Conservatism Dies and Barack Obama Wins
do you know what would be super-sweet? a steel cage death match between Bobo the Clown and Erik the Red.
Elizabelle
Saw the headline, “A Serious Romney”, and knew Brooks was going to be fellating Romney today.
Over to y’all to explicate. I’m not clicking on the link.
Elizabelle
PS: Re David Brooks: Your previous headline “Liar, Liar” works too.
Baud
So Bobo supports Romney’s plan but opposes Obamacare because…?
Jon O.
“Bold” is the new “maverick.”
Gin & Tonic
“Intense competition among private insurers” exists about as much as intense competition among cable TV/Internet companies. This line can only be written by someone completely ignorant of the health insurance market.
Steve L.
The first sentence of this post is going to give me nightmares.
Violet
Is this thread a good fit to mention NotMittRomney.com? It’s real. A bunch of conservatives have signed onto it. They really hate the Mittster.
Waynski
Isn’t allowing seniors to opt for the current system as opposed to the private one, gasp.. a public option? What am I missing here?
@Mnemosyne — Always amazes me when anyone pays tribute to the Marx Brothers or the Three Stooges. I suppose they were funny to a lot of people at the time, but honestly what choice did you have other than not being amused? I suppose the analogy works here because of the slapstick nature of Marx Bros. comedy, but can we please try and update cultural references to something more recent than 80 years ago? Try, Bobo. Just try.
JGabriel
Bobo:
Pete Domenici … where do I know that name from?
Oh, right. The Bush DoJ scandal.
Yep, that’s the kind of guy I’d expect Bobo to cite approvingly.
.
MattF
There was never much doubt that Brooks would end up supporting some Republican, and with the current set of candidates, there really isn’t much point to going beyond “eeny”.
The interesting news is that the ritual self-humiliation that used to be the lot of left-wing fellow travelers has transported to the opposite end of the political spectrum, and that’s actually a good thing, IMO.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
“Medicare Advantage? Never heard of it,” Bobo murmured, as he unzipped Rombot’s trousers.
doubletall
For someone who claims to ‘get it’ when it comes to how ‘we’ (as in liberals think) Wrong Again Cole sure does read a lot of curious stuff. BoBo, Greenwald. Can only imagine the sheit Wrong Again Cole doesn’t admit to reading.
Loneoak
Are ‘teh youngs’ the new ‘teh browns’? Because it’s becoming increasingly obvious to anyone under 35 that the GOP/Village is hell bent on taking away everything good and hoarding it under their exurban lawns.
Mudge
Bobo says “..while people like me believe that intense competition among private insurers will lead to more innovation and cost reduction, we can’t really be sure.”
I say “while people like me believe that given half a chance, private insurers will collude and fix prices leading to no innovation and higher prices, and we can really be sure.”
And, also, innovation in the financial industry worked out so well (CDOs, MBS, etc), why not innovation in health insurance? AIG would have a head start.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Elizabelle: I refuse to see the blocks John copied. If I wanted to see something like that, I would rather watch gay pr0n, and I’m not gay.
MikeJ
@Jon O.:
Mitt Romney was a P.O.W.!
doubletall
Why no words of wisdom about the stock market lately Wrong Again Cole? Dow over 12000 again for now. That used to be your favorite scapegoat for everything going wrong when it was dropping fast…..a month or two ago. Funny how you don’t seem so interested in that shiny object now that it’s going up.
Dave
The money people in the GOP have spoken and now the talking heads are falling into line. Watch for FOX to start polishing up Romney now.
Funny how this came out right after Cain’s campaign immolated itself.
Samara Morgan
or……Bobo vs. Rushbo!
Judas Escargot
I thought “Premium Support” referred to Mitt’s preferred brand of magical underwear.
Culture of Truth
@Loneoak: It’s Generational Warfare!
jacy
Amusingly enough, looking up Zeppo Marx, you find these critical reviews:
And:
This week’s Zeppo is next week’s Shemp.
JGabriel
Shorter Romney (actually, shorter GOP in general): Don’t screw the rich; Screw the kidZ!
.
Samara Morgan
@doubletall: the stock market has no correlation with job creation. that is what OWS is all about, retardo.
why should Cole be interested?
Chyron HR
In the Marx Brothers movie that is the Republican presidential race, Mitt Romney is
ZeppoMargaret Dumont.Roger Moore
Not the keenest observer of conservative thinking, is he? If seniors stay in Medicare, the conservatives will just double down, gut Medicare, and force people into the glorious
competitivefor profit market.BGinCHI
@MikeJ: Piece of Whitebread?
The Moar You Know
Romney = Kerry
Oh, but wait, Kerry was a war hero who then took it upon himself to take an incredibly unpopular stand against the war. Hmm, Romney’s never done anything like that.
Romney = Bob Dole
Oh wait, Bob Dole also had the balls to put his money where his mouth was and got most of his right arm blown off for his pains.
Romney = Herman Cain
Nah, Herman’s had plenty of jobs that his daddy didn’t get for him.
Romney = Bush
Now I think we’re getting somewhere.
Certified Mutant Enemy
Brooks was bound to fellate whoever the Republican nominee turns out to be. Look for a similar article if the eventual nominee is not-Romney.
Hill Dweller
No advance country in the world depends on for-profits plans for primary coverage. The Swiss use for-profit companies for basic coverage, but they mandate a price.
That is the key. To control costs, you have to remove the profit motive from the health care system, which is why most advanced countries avoid for-profit insurance plans, at least for basic coverage.
Medicare does what it is asked to do–solely cover the most expensive demographic in health care–far more cheaply than the private sector can. If these right wing hacks really wanted to make Medicare more affordable(they don’t), they’d open it to everyone, and allow the younger, healthier demographic that make the insurance companies so much money.
Judas Escargot
@jacy:
You’ve pretty much described the whole GOP primary drama so far, haven’t you?
driftglass
In case Charlie Pierce is too busy on the Stephanie Miller show…
How David Brooks learned to stop worrying and love the Rom(ney)– http://bit.ly/tYVMrv
amk
someone shoot this idjit/liar in his tongue so that he cannot fellate anyone anymore.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Samara Morgan:
do you know what would be super-sweet? a steel cage death match between Bobo the Clown and Erik the Red.
Ending with a murder-suicide.
Linda
Chyron @ 27, you win the internets. And Bobo, his newest fan, is the Margaret Dumont of pundits. Asfor Charles Pierce, sometimes shooting at Bobo must be like going after fish in a barrel. With a bazooka.
Rick Massimo
Well, I’m convinced. It’s a terrible idea!
But seriously folks, when has this ever happened? The first thing private industries do is try to eliminate “intense competition.” And while the government used to make sure that such competition would actually happen, they have been systematically pushed out of doing so by 30 years of Republicans screaming about free-market Jesus or something.
So in the real world, “innovation” means crappier insurance. And “cost-cutting” means firing people. (Heck, that’s even true if there really were “intense competition.”) And even Bobo is smart enough to know that. He’s simply advocating for a worse America for everyone except the institutes who pay him handsomely to speak.
Roger Moore
You can try to come up with any assignment of the candidates to the characters, but there’s an obvious one that’s missing: nobody is playing Groucho. If there were a candidate who was obviously three steps ahead of everybody else and just treating the other candidates as his foils, we wouldn’t be so wrapped up in who was going to win.
amk
@The Moar You Know: Nice. A true trustafarian in the shrub tradition.
doubletall
@Samara Morgan: Ask him.
https://balloon-juice.com/2011/08/04/a-feature-not-a-bug/#comment-2708585
“retardo”. Haven’t heard that since grade school. Clearly you are someone who should be taken very seriously……BAHAHahahahaa!
Violet
@driftglass:
Excellent.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Linda:
must be like going after fish in a barrel. With a bazooka.
Tonight on Mythbusters…
geg6
@Waynski:
If you don’t see the humor in the Marx Brothers, you have no sense of humor.
And Zeppo, IRL, was the funniest one and the one who got laid the most.
Hungry Joe
@Waynski
The Marx Brothers are a contemporary reference, because the Marx Brothers are timeless, eternal, everlasting. And please don’t equate them with The Three Stooges. Please. Just … don’t. Thank you.
amk
OT – berlo about to bite the eyetalian dust ?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-europe-15641610
geg6
@Chyron HR:
This! THIS, THIS, THIS!
Tonybrown74
Your title should have read: Bobo Reaches Around.
IMHO.
harlana
@Waynski:
I’m no spring chicken, but I didn’t get this reference. Not a Marx Bros. aficionado. I guess he thinks he’s being cute, which is most of the time.
schlemizel
@Mnemosyne:
Zeppo was nicknamed for the Zeppelin, while the image of a flaming gas bag is the first thing that comes to my mind I tend to associate that with Limbaugh more than Romney.
fasteddie9318
I submit that driftglass was the blogosphere’s Charlie Pierce before Charlie Pierce entered the blogosphere. Maybe that makes Charlie Pierce the new driftglass.
I love how insidious this is, because under the guise of “choice” we can entice rich people to drop out of Medicare and thereby leave it with a poorer and likely sicker pool of recipients, which makes it less viable. Romney can insist that he’s not touching Medicare when he’s really signing its death warrant.
schlemizel
@Hungry Joe:
The Marx Brothers are a fine, aged Burgundy. The three stooges are a Chericol and Ripple cocktail .
Certified Mutant Enemy
@schlemizel:
Q. What’s the difference between the Hindenburg and Rush Limbaugh?
A. One is a flaming Nazi gasbag, the other is just an airship.
smintheus
I think what these Republicans are aiming for is intergenerational war. And they don’t seem to realize that oldsters won’t want to see their children and grandchildren screwed in years to come by these cheesy schemes to destroy the social safety net.
Elizabelle
@driftglass:
Superb, dude. The only way I will read that column, too.
For another thread: any thoughts on restructuring of Pete Rouse’s duties at the White House?
He sounds competent to me. More of this, please.
geg6
@Elizabelle:
Yeah and getting Dailey out of the day-to-day dealings, especially with Congress (Harry Reid apparently detests him), will certainly be a good thing. Dem congresscritters love them some Pete Rouse.
schlemizel
@Certified Mutant Enemy:
Yup – thats the punchline!
@smintheus:
Well they have won on pitting rich against poor(with a huge assist from the poor) and are losing steam on their efforts to pit whites against blacks/browns and straights against gays so there just isn’t much left. Plus the real wedge is ‘screw over your kids & grandkids or we will screw you over’. That is a message I am afraid might work for them.
Samara Morgan
@doubletall: sillie man, a lot of us THOUGHT there was a correlation….but over the last few months it has become empirically obivioso that there is none.
I think Cole should get an atta-boi for seeing the light.
hes on the OWS side now.
he got the luck.
;)
Roger Moore
@schlemizel:
Q: What’s the difference between Rush Limbaugh and the Hindenburg?
A: One is a flaming Nazi gasbag, and the other is a dirigible.
[ETA: Damn, somebody else got there first!]
amk
huntsman finally develops some cajones and breaks the most sacrosanct raygun edict.
amk
@Elizabelle: From another blog
fasteddie9318
@amk: I wonder how much Huntsman needs to get that ad on the air in major primary markets, because I’d donate to that even though I hate Huntsman just as much as the rest of those pieces of shit.
Roxsie
Mistakenly clicked on “Tug Job” thinking I’d get a definition of the term. Instead I got the fucking cheerleading Brooks article. I only get so many NY Times articles. I want my click back
smintheus
@schlemizel: Nah, that one won’t work…because they’re all related to the kids the GOP is now trying to victimize. Anybody who promotes intergenerational warfare ends up the loser.
Besides, how dumb do you have to be not to realize that even if you initially retain your Cadillac Medicare benefits while younger generations are given a crappy imitation, either they’re going to give themselves your plan or they’re going to force you to accept their plan?
Culture of Truth
Does Bobo even know what insurance is?
Social Outcast
But it is also substantively smart because, while people like me believe that intense competition among private insurers will lead to more innovation and cost reduction, we can’t really be sure.
Can’t be sure, certainly. Because there is no example we could look at to see if competition drives prices down. No example, like, say the giant market for private health insurance in this country for the millions of people who aren’t on medicare.
He’s not even trying to be believable.
Tuffy
@30:
While Romney was born into incredible wealth and is certainly not a self-made man, Herman Cain did get a little bit of help from his daddy as well.
Herman Cain’s father was the chauffeur for the CEO of Coca Cola. After he graduated college, Herman’s dad got him his first job at Coke through his connections there.
Mino
I’ve come to realize the only way this country will reduce health care costs is for increasing numbers of people to self-ration themselves. Shit coverage IS the future under either party, it seems.
No one is even looking at other options. The states will lead here if the Supremes allow it.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Culture of Truth: Sure, to him it’s “that stuff that Lieberman keeps trying to sell me”.
El Cid
A similar arc was seen before McCain claimed the nomination. Rush was screaming about how McCain would destroy the party, but once nominated it was Popular Front time again.
Legalize
What. The. Fuck.
daveNYC
Even if (IF!) intense competition would lead to improvements in medical insurance and whatnot, there’s still no way in hell that those improvements would somehow make insurance for old people affordable.
They’re old, they get sick more, and their illnesses tend to cost more. Medical insurance companies are gits, but even I wouldn’t be able to blame them for either not wanting to offer or charging an arm and a leg for insurance on the 65+ crew. Get a little Type II Diabetes, a multi-bypass, and then a nursing home stay at the end, pretty soon you’re talking real money.
Roger Moore
@Mino:
No. The key cause of our outrageous costs isn’t that we’re getting more procedures than other countries, it’s that each procedure costs a lot more, and the core of that cost is that we pay our doctors, nurses, pharmacists, etc. way more than other countries do. That’s because professional organizations like the AMA are using licensing requirements to limit the supply and raise prices. If we really want to bring prices down, we need to greatly increase the number of medical and nursing schools so there are enough doctors and nurses to provide care and some price competition.
schrodinger's cat
Clearly Bobo hasn’t read Akerlof’s seminal paper on the Market for Lemons as to why seniors (typically with lot more medical needs than the average population) would be priced out of any competitive insurance market.
This paper is from the early 70’s. Bobo is worse than the nuttiest fire breathing Fox news contributor because he so cleverly camouflages his wingnuttery and obedience to the GOP party line under a seemingly reasonable facade.
les
@Gin & Tonic:
Bobo as no difficulty meeting that standard, on most any topic.
Samara Morgan
@Certified Mutant Enemy: they are both on the front page headlines part of hotair right now. who do you think AllahP will pick as the winner?
i bet that he just weasel words it, but his commentariat loathes Romney.
MaximusNYC
If Romney is Zeppo, I nominate grabby-hands Cain for Harpo, dim-bulb Perry for Chico, and smart-mouth Newt for Groucho.
JGabriel
Gin & Tonic:
You’re skeptical that the man who thinks Applebee’s has a salad bar would be any more knowledgeable about health insurance markets?
.
Mino
@Roger Moore: I should have added …within the current situation. I know there are solutions, it’s just we as a nation can’t get Washington to consider anything except constraining the USE of the health system.
singfoom
@Roxsie: FYI about the NYTimes paywall. When you run out of articles and the popup comes up telling you to subscribe? Just remove anything after the .html (i.e ?gwh=slurelser8979873294) and hit enter.
Bam, article is there. They did not get their money’s worth from whatever dev shop wrote that paywall.
Samara Morgan
@MaximusNYC: and Palin as Gummo?
BB
DougJ alert: On last Friday’s NPR discussion between BoBo and E. J. Dionne, BoBo was talking about how people don’t like Romney, and to prove his point he talked about the pre-debate green rooms last election cycle. BoBo said that when Romney walked in the room, the “emotional temperature” dropped, or something, and then he said, in order to explain why the other guys didn’t like Romney, “maybe it’s just that he’s so good looking.” THAT’S IT. He’s good-looking. And then here- “he’s just the earnest, good-looking guy.” For David Brooks, everything has to do with how sun-chapped your skin is. In order to fuck the middle class, you’ve got to find a good looking guy to get them to take their pants off.
MaximusNYC
@Samara Morgan: Hmm. Gummo was always the behind-the-scenes brother. Maybe Grover Norquist? Or Karl Rove?
Tonal Crow
We’ve already tried Romney’s experiment. It’s called the existing non-Medicare private health insurance system. It cheats patients, doesn’t cover everyone, and costs too much. Hypothesis falsified; time for “conservatives” to do “a lot of rethinking”.
Davis X. Machina
Shorter David Brooks: “Let the word go forth, from this place and time, to friend and foe alike, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the removal of that awful Negro from the White House.”
That’s probably not fair, in retrospect. It would probably be true of any Democrat.
TenguPhule
Bobo is long overdue for a “found bleeding out in the dumpster in a dark alley” bit the NYT.
Yutsano
@Davis X. Machina:
Oh I think you’re pretty much spot on there good sir. The entire Village about had a coronary over the possibility of one of THEM getting into the White House.
feebog
Actually, Zeppo Marx was a pretty astute businessman. He dropped out of film making and became an agent. One of his clients was Barbara Stanwyck, and they commisioned two homes designed and built by Paul Revere Williams, one of the first sucessful African American Arcitects. The homes were built in Northridge California, and the property was named Marwyck. They raised racing horses. It didn’t last long, because Stanwcyk married Robert Taylor a few years after the houses were built, and moved in with him. She sold the house to Actor Jack Oakie, who named it Oakridge Estate. The house still stands and is now being converted to a public park. If you are interested you can learn more by going to the website, http://www.oakridgeestate.com
jake the snake
@schlemizel:
I resemble that remark. Actually the Marx Brothers are Maker’s Mark, while the three stooges are J W Dant.
FlipYrWhig
On what planet is it a moneymaking proposition to be a middleman for providing health care to the oldest, sickest part of the population? Why would any company want to robustly compete its way into that marketplace? The profitable part is collecting the money, then denying the claims. Otherwise there’s no reason to be in the business.
ETA: Brooks apparently thinks companies are eager to run lotteries with many, many winners.
Downpuppy
I thought Xander Harris was the Zeppo.
Xander had a much better grasp of class issues than Willard.
Zloto
@Waynski – If anything, there aren’t enough 80 year-old cultural references these days. Hollywood, columnists, etc. are petrified of making references to anything before about 1975 or even later (hence all the lists of “best movie scenes of all time” that have no movies from before the ’80s). The Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges just stand out because they’re among the few old-school references we hear regularly. Generally, though, someone who makes an 80 year-old cultural reference is being hipper than someone who quotes Spaceballs or something.
Roxsie
@singfoom: How about that! Now I won’t have to penalize Brooks for interference on my NY Jets news. Thanks
SectarianSofa
@Steve L.:
I don’t know about nightmares, but I did just throw up.
Also, re. Bobo, fuck that fucking fucker. Insufferable.
(Note, I have nothing against hot boy-on-boy action, but anything involving either of these two is repugnant. Also, too, Palin.)
SectarianSofa
@Roxsie:
Toot toot. We need a Brooksian version in the BJ lexicon.
(Probably better to spell out Balloon-Juice in this case, but still.)
Origuy
@geg6:
I heard Mel Brooks tell this story on the show Dick Cavett did about him, but I can’t find the clip online:
Of course, Mel told it better.
Heritage-Bot
Bull-f***ing-shit.
We can be quite sure that ‘competition’ in the health care market will do neither of those things.
What it will do is increase by 100 fold all of these ‘low-cost’ and ‘affordable’ plans that Grandma and Grandpa can get duped into buying and figuring out later that buried in the plan details or contract is a 30,000 deductible and the right of the insurance company to grind you up into cat food.
sherparick
Apparently Bobo never heard of Medicare Advantage. It cost an extra $15 billion a year in subsidies over traditional Medicare. The key word in Bobo’s column is “belief.” Again, facts can never get in the way of his belief.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_Advantage .. Medicare has a standard benefit package that covers medically necessary care that beneficiaries can receive from nearly any hospital or (except in Alaska) doctor in the country. For people who choose to enroll in a Medicare private health plan, Medicare pays the private health plan a set amount every month for each member. Members may have to pay a monthly premium in addition to the Medicare Part B premium. Medicare Advantage subscribers generally pay a fixed amount (a copayment of $20, for example) every time they see a doctor just as with Original Medicare. The copayment can be higher to see a specialist just as with Original Medicare.
The private plans are required to offer a benefit “package” that is at least as good as Medicare’s and cover everything Medicare covers, but they do not have to cover every benefit in the same way. Plans that pay less than Medicare for some benefits, like skilled nursing facility care, can balance their benefits package by offering lower copayments for doctor visits. Private plans use some of the excess payments they receive from the government for each enrollee to offer supplemental benefits. Some plans put a limit on their members’ annual out-of-pocket spending on medical care, providing some insurance against costs over $5,000, for example. Many plans use the excess subsidies to offer dental coverage and other services not covered by Medicare and can leave members exposed to high medical bills if they fall seriously ill. As with traditional Medicare, private plan members can incur high out-of-pocket costs.
In 2006 enrollees in Medicare Advantage Private Fee-for-Service plans were offered a net extra benefit value (the value of the additional benefits minus any additional premium) of $55.92 a month more than the traditional Medicare benefit package; enrollees in other Medicare Advantage plans were offered a net extra benefit value of $71.22 a month more.[2]
Medicare Advantage Plans that also include Part D prescription drug benefits are known as a Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug plan or a MAPD.
Enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans grew from 5.4 million in 2005 to 8.2 million in 2007. Enrollment grew by an additional 800,000 during the first four months of 2008. This represents 19% of Medicare beneficiaries. A third of beneficiaries with Part D coverage are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan. Medicare Advantage enrollment is higher in urban areas; the enrollment rate in urban counties is twice that in rural counties (22% vs. 10%). Almost all Medicare beneficiaries have access to at least two Medicare Advantage plans; most have access to three or more. The number of organizations offering Fee-for-Service plans has increased dramatically, from 11 in 2006 to almost 50 in 2008. Eight out of ten beneficiaries (82%) now have access to six or more Private Fee-for-Service plans.[3]
According to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a record 11.1 million people (approximately 25% of all Medicare beneficiaries) were enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans as of March 2010, up from 10.5 million in March 2009. In their report, Kaiser noted that while most Medicare beneficiaries have dozens of private Medicare Advantage plans available in their community, enrollment is highly concentrated among a small number of firms in nearly all states.[4]
Although the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 does not eliminate Medicare Advantage, it does do away with the subsidies which the federal government first used to establish the Medicare Advantage program and which many Medicare Advantage health insurance plans use to offer supplemental benefits. These subsidies (which added an additional $14 billion to the Medicare program last year alone) will gradually be reduced until they are eliminated altogether. In 2011, these Medicare Advantage subsidy payments will be frozen at 2010 levels. After that, Medicare Advantage subsidy payments will be reduced an average of 12% per year until they are brought in line with traditional Medicare payments.[5]
PWL
I can only imagine that BoboWorld would be my vision of Hell: A beige and bland place, as soulessly hygenic as a McDonald’s–or an Applebees–where the Little People humbly defer to the wisdom of their corporate betters–and flacks like David Brooks….
Barry
@Certified Mutant Enemy: “Brooks was bound to fellate whoever the Republican nominee turns out to be. Look for a similar article if the eventual nominee is not-Romney.”
Almost anybody who draws a paycheck will fall into line. The only ones who won’t are those whose paycheck comes from fringe niches where they can oppose Romney and still get paid.
rikryah
they need to force every republican running to answer these questions:
1. are you for privatizing Social Security like your party nominee wants to
2. are you for privatizing Medicare like your party nominee wants to
Barry
@PWL: “I can only imagine that BoboWorld would be my vision of Hell: A beige and bland place, as soulessly hygenic as a McDonald’s—or an Applebees—where the Little People humbly defer to the wisdom of their corporate betters—and flacks like David Brooks….”
Don’t worry about ‘beige and bland’. For us, it’d be a nasty third-world ghetto. The ‘bland’ part would occur in in the walled-off estates of the elites, where we’d never go except as very carefully screened servants.
Mnemosyne
@Waynski:
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” used a lot of Zeppo references about one of the characters, so ironically it is sort of hip and cool. Assuming your standard for hip and cool is TV shows that went off the air almost a decade ago, that is.
schlemizel
@jake the snake:
I was originally going to go with Makers Mark (my fav) and Night Train. Never heard of Dant.
But I changed my mind because I thought of an old “Sanford And Son” gag. Redd Foxx often made reference to joke cocktails involving Ripple, the had clever names. The Chericol & Ripple mix he called “a cripple”
Jado
“…conservatives will have a lot of rethinking to do.”
Yeah, that’ll happen. I mean, look how much “re-thinking” they have done with regard to the climate change issue, even after Richard Muller came out with his findings.
I hear that the Republicans in Congress are holding every other legislation hostage until the Kyoto Accords are ratified. Cause they are skilled “re-thinkers”, who pay attention to things like “verifiable facts” and “evidence”.
Bobo lives in a world of unicorns and gumdrop mountains