Vets, Medicare Beneficiaries Worry About Future Health Coverage

News outlets covered protests of seniors and concern by veterans' groups about possible increases in costs for their health insurance.

The Associated Press: Lawmakers Open To Changes In Military Benefits
The government's promise of lifetime health care for the military's men and women is suddenly a little less sacrosanct as Congress looks to slash trillion-dollar-plus deficits. Republicans and Democrats alike are signaling a willingness — unheard of at the height of two post-Sept. 11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — to make military retirees pay more for coverage. It's a reflection of Washington's newfound embrace of fiscal austerity and the Pentagon's push to cut health care costs that have skyrocketed from $19 billion in 2001 to $53 billion (Cassata, 10/22).

CNN Money: Medicare: How Much More Will They Cut?
The central idea behind the maze of cost-control provisions health reform establishes: Focus on trimming fat before reducing benefits. One approach is to reduce the power of providers to drive spending. When your doctor says you need this test or that surgery, you tend to take his word for it, even if you have hefty out-of-pocket costs. ... The pressure to fix Medicare won't just affect seniors; people younger than 65 will be affected too (Regnier, 10/21). 

Boston.com: Seniors Protest Proposed Medicare Eligibility Change
Senior citizens clad in flapping hospital johnnies and hoisting signs reading “Keep seniors covered” took the streets of downtown Boston to protest the proposed increase in the eligibility age for Medicare. ... The protesters said the statewide [hospital] association ... [advocates] raising the eligibility age for Medicare from 65 to 67 to help reduce the federal budget. But the hospital association says it has not advocated any specific proposals before the congressional super committee examining the budget cuts and that Massachusetts hospitals have already accepted lower Medicare reimbursements as part of the federal Affordable Care Act  (Fox, 10/21).

Detroit Free Press/The Associated Press: Social Security Boost Will Just Keep Some Beneficiaries Afloat 
For some, the just-announced increase in Social Security checks amounts to an extra meal out, a little more cash for clothes or a new pair of shoes, or some added comfort in retirement. ... Frank Chicoine, 80, of Stuart, Fla., receives a pension from his years working at a utility company, but that check's amount is fixed. The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is the only raise he gets. Medicare premiums cost him and his wife nearly $200 a month, and their supplemental health insurance is another $600 a month (Sedensky, 10/21).