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Groton Daily Independent
Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 223 ~ 50 of 52
crats with a middle way to achieve their longstanding goal of coverage for all.
“It’s an attempt to capture the enthusiasm for a single-payer system among the Democratic base, but
trying to create a more politically and scally realistic roadmap,” said Larry Levitt of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
To be sure, taxes would rise and the federal government would take on a larger role.
“It is in some ways ‘repeal and replace,’ but from the left rather than the right,” Levitt added. Medicare Extra envisions a complex transition that would take the better part of a decade. Among its
major elements:
—All U.S. citizens and lawful residents would be automatically eligible for coverage.
—Preventive care, treatment for chronic disease, and generic prescription drugs would be free. Dental,
vision and hearing services would be included.
—Low-income people would pay no premiums or copays. Premiums and cost-sharing would be deter-
mined according to income for everyone else.
—Employers would have the option of maintaining their own plans or joining Medicare Extra. Workers
could pick the government plan over their employer’s. The proposal would preserve the tax-free status of employer-provided health care, subject to a limit.
—Seniors with private Medicare Advantage insurance plans through Medicare would be able to keep similar coverage, although the program would be redesigned and called “Medicare Choice.” Seniors would gain coverage for vision, dental and hearing services not now provided by Medicare. Long-term care ser- vices would be covered.
—Government would negotiate prices for prescription drugs, medical devices and medical equipment.
Although costs and nancing are not spelled out in the proposal, its authors acknowledge signi cant tax increases would be required. Options include rolling back some of the recently enacted GOP tax cuts for corporations and upper-income people, raising Medicare taxes on upper-income earners, and higher taxes on tobacco and sugary soft drinks.
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Online:
Center for American Progress proposal: https://www.americanprogress.org/?p=447095
Asian stocks lower after Fed report renews bond yield fears By KELVIN CHAN, AP Business Writer
HONG KONG (AP) — Most Asian stock indexes fell Thursday, tracking Wall Street’s decline after the lat- est Fed report rekindled fears about in ation and rising bond yields.
KEEPING SCORE: Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index sank 1.2 percent to 21,713.20 and South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.5 percent to 2,417.24. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.1 percent to 31,076.62 but the Shang- hai Composite rose 1.6 percent to 3,250.64, fueled by pent-up demand from investors in mainland China, where markets reopened after a weeklong holiday. Australia’s S&P ASX 200 dipped 0.1 percent to 5,938.60.
MEETING MINUTES: The Federal Reserve’s minutes from its most recent policy meeting indicated bull- ish sentiment among policymakers about the outlook for U.S. and global economic growth, reinforcing expectations for further interest rate rises this year. Wall Street initially welcomed the report but soon enough U.S. Treasury yields spiked to their highest level in four years, snuf ng out the market rally in a sign of renewed worries about rising in ation. Higher yields hurt stock prices by making bonds more at- tractive than equities.
MARKET VIEW: “The Fed minutes for the January meeting seem to have set off another (so far) minor explosion in markets,” Michael Every, Asia strategist at Rabobank, said in a commentary.
WALL STREET: Major U.S. benchmarks ended lower. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 0.5 percent to 2,701.33. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.7 percent to 24,797.78. The Nasdaq gave up 0.2 percent to 7,218.23.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude fell 71 cents to $60.97 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York