EDITORIAL
Misled Congress must try to salvage Medicare

Once again, the grim reaper appears to be hovering over Medicare, a federal health insurance program designed to provide healthcare for the elderly and the disabled.

A narrowly divided Congress last November passed a bill that creates a new prescription drug benefit and gives private insurers and drug companies billions of dollars to lure seniors and the disabled into managed care plans.

The Bush administration promised the benefits would cost $395 billion over 10 years. Then last month, Medicare's chief actuary testified that his boss threatened to fire him if he released figures that showed the benefit would actually cost $551 billion, a figure that would almost certainly have stopped the bill in its tracks.

With that kind of price tag, the Medicare trust fund that pays for in-patient hospital care is likely to go belly-up by 2020. Of course, that's long after this year's presidential election.

The fact of the matter is, we're stuck with the exorbitant Medicare plan for now. And no doubt, those eligible for the prescription discounts won't want to rock the boat.

Let's hope Congress can retain the good in the law and rescind the bad before Medicare goes broke.

Meanwhile in Hawai'i, it wouldn't hurt to revisit the proposal for a state long-term-care tax that would provide a basic safety net, including supplemental care such as home help.