To follow up on my earlier post on the rising cost of healthcare and the Republican failure to actually deal with the problem, HHS announced this afternoon that Medicare premiums will be going up next year.

Senior citizens and the disabled will have to pay a monthly Medicare premium of $88.50 next year for doctor's visits and other services, a $10.30 boost in the fee.

In a nutshell, this is how I understand the argument coming from HHS's Center for Medicare Management. With more services being covered and the Medicare prescription drug benefit going into effect soon, people will be receiving more services and as such, they shouldn't have a problem paying more. However, the American Medical Association put out a press release earlier this year which made the point that the increased coverage of services was justified since many of those services can now be performed as less expensive outpatient procedures.

So then, all that's left to justify the increase in premiums is the Medicare prescription drug benefit. Funny, but when GOP candidates around the country were campaigning on that benefit, I don't recall them saying anything about needing to hike premiums to pay for it.

Meanwhile, over at Operation Truth, Iraq veteran Perry Jefferies points to an Army Times article about the push to cut military healthcare spending in favor of large-scale weaponry.

The Pentagon's former top budget officer warned Wednesday that failure to control military personnel costs -- especially health care expenses -- is one of the biggest threats facing the Defense Department.
. . .
"Something has to be done to prevent personnel and O&M [operations and maintenance] expenses from stifling" spending on new weapons development, testing and fielding, said Zakheim, a vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton, an international management consulting firm.

I assume this is all part of the new Republican 'fiscal conservatism'. Cut benefits and hike premiums for the elderly, the disabled, and soldiers in order to pay for tax cuts and no-bid contracts in Iraq and the Gulf Coast. Lovely.