Napa Valley Register - Medicare gets a 50th birthday bash

Medicare, which sends about $300 million annually to Napa County and helps thousands of local residents age 65 and older with their medical expenses, is 50 years old this month.

On Monday, the Napa Senior Activity Center hosted a small Medicare birthday party. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, came to cut a cake in honor of the program.

"Show of hands – how many people here are beneficiaries of Medicare?" Thompson said to a roomful of about 40 seniors eating lunch.

Almost every hand went up. Thompson said the program provides access to health care for people who otherwise wouldn't have it.

Seniors helped pay for Medicare, Thompson said. It's not as if Medicare participants are on the dole.

"That's why it always angers me when people are trying to cut it or privatize it," Thompson said.

Medicare is even important to Napa County residents who are too young to use the program, Thompson said. They probably know someone who does. Plus, that $300 million in Medicare dollars coming annually to the county helps the local economy, he said.

Beverly St. Clair is a regular at the senior center. She said Medicare has helped her with medical expenses.

"I don't have a lot of expenses, but it certainly has been very helpful for what I do have," she added as she finished lunch.

Sue Rasmusen is also a senior center regular. She said Medicare has been a help, though not a necessity.

"If I hadn't been a member of the union, it would be a different circumstance," she said, adding she was in the grocery union.

Some policymakers have brought up the specter of Medicare someday facing bankruptcy. But Thompson said it's a successful program.

"I don't know how anyone can allow it to go bankrupt," he said after the ceremony. "It has tremendous support across the country."

The part of the program that covers visits to doctors and lab tests will remain in financial balance, according to a 2014 report by the program's trust fund board of trustees. Beneficiary premiums and revenue transfers will be set at a level to meet expenses.

But the hospital trust fund will be unable to pay 100 percent of its costs in 2030, with the payroll tax and other income covering only 85 percent of the projected spending, the trustee report said.

Medicare cost $583 billion nationwide in 2013, the report said.

Joining Thompson at the Napa Medicare celebration were county Supervisors Brad Wagenknecht and Alfredo Pedroza, Napa Vice Mayor Scott Sedgley and American Canyon City Councilman Mark Joseph. Representatives for Assemblyman Bill Dodd and state Sen. Lois Wolk were also among those present.