On Medicare, The Ump is AWOL

The NYT again missed an opportunity to inform readers on the debate over reforming the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act. The bill that the House passed expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) would finance the expansion by cutting the payments to private insurers operating within the Medicare program. A NYT article on the topic comments that "many Democrats say these plans, which serve nearly one-fifth of the 43 million Medicare beneficiaries, are overpaid." This is true, but the non-partisan Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office also report that private plans cost Medicare 12 percent more per person, on average, than the traditional Medicare program. In other words, this is not a "he said, she said" that the reader must decide for themself, the excess payment is a fact. The Republicans have argued that the excess payments are warranted for a variety of reasons, which can be debated, but there is no dispute that the private plans substantially increase the cost of Medicare. The NYT should have made this point clear to its readers.

--Dean Baker