My favorite lobbyist has a letter in the NY Times.
In which she argues that beneficiaries save money compared to regular
Medicare, and (this is the fun part) if payments are reduced then this
will have to be reflected in more charges to the poor. I have a long reply to this in waiting, but I’ve been persuaded to give my shorter version a shot at the NY Times letter’s page. If they don’t want to print it, then I’ll be back here with the long and the short version later in the week.

UPDATE: Not that this will surprise anyone remembering Medicare Risk Plans putting their sign-ups on the second story of a walk-up (I know no one eve proved those stories in the 90s…) but the NY Times today has a story about sales abuses in the Private Medicare FFS market which sound very like long distance phone "slamming" of 15 years or so ago. Except of course the victims are a little more vulnerable. Even CMS (which is at least partially run by Republicans who approved of the MMA) seems a little distressed by what’s going on.