The New Holocaust

Posted on December 7, 2003 in Accountability Class Insurance

With race and religion made untouchable, the Libertine Right has a new target for hatred: the nation’s elderly. Under the pretense of efficiency, they have not only left many seniors with higher out of pocket prescription drug costs, but the law that President Bush signs into law on Monday also prohibits Seniors from covering the gap with insurance:

Congress cited two reasons for banning the sale of Medigap drug policies. Lawmakers wanted to prevent duplication of the new Medicare benefit. They also wanted to be sure that beneficiaries would bear some of the cost. Health economists have long asserted that when beneficiaries are insulated from the costs, they tend to overuse medical services.

Gail E. Shearer, a health policy analyst at Consumers Union, said she had mixed feelings about the prohibition.

“I don’t want a return to abuses of 1970’s and 80’s, when lots of confusing Medigap policies were sold to vulnerable seniors,” Ms. Shearer said. But she added: “Many seniors and disabled people will face a huge gap in drug coverage. In a bill that’s marketed as providing choice to consumers, comprehensive drug coverage is not really an option. That’s a disappointment.”

Is this designed to appeal to those hoping to cash in on the new inheritance tax hiatus scheduled to go into effect late in this decade? Are they trying to kill off parents who are holding back money from their children? Or just the idea of cooperation beyond and without capitalism?

The decision as to what is necessary and unnecessary is a private one, to be made by the patient and the doctor, not by medically untrained outsiders. Though the Libertines preach freedom of choice, bills such as this pare away the protections and enablements that allow all our elderly to have it.

When the result is poorer health, increased governmental intrusion without increased governmental support of basic health needs, and, ultimately, premature death, the metaphor of the Holocaust ripples across the mind of the just-thinking. Senior citizens have become Jews and Gypsies for a regime in desparate need of scapegoats.