Repeal by parts.

Such a good sign, I thought I would print it again. (Author Photo)

Social Security has been targeted for destruction since it was enacted in the 1930s. Medicare and Medicaid have been targets for repeal since the mid-1960s.

But the current method of repeal does not involve frontal attacks in the open, where they can be seen. Repeal of Social Security and of Medicare, and even of Medicaid, is wildly unpopular. The risk of an open revolt is too great for opponents of these programs to operate openly.

Opposition to these programs is a rallying cry for the obvious overall objective of the regime, which is to make money in all things. If that objective was not as obvious in January, it is certainly obvious in July.

Still, even with all the billions of dollars spent by the regime and its Private Equity masters, they still have not bought a majority even in Congress. The reconciliation budget bill got an even vote in the Senate until they broke the 50-50 tie. The House barely passed the bill with a mathematical more-than-one-half-of-the-House vote: 218 out of 435.

There were three repeals by "moratoriums" in the insanely huge reconciliation budget bill. The first was addressed in an earlier article, and it relates to Long Term Care. The proponents of repeal by moratorium perceived that the parents and grandparents housed in Long Term Care were too old to fight for Staffing Standards. But they are wrong. Residents of Long Term Care Facilities, their families, their organizations and their supporters will resist. They have resisted. They are resisting all the time.

Another moratorium, one concerning repeal at one and the same time of rules designed to help Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Insurance Program, will be discussed in a future article.

Today the second of these three repeals by moratorium will be addressed here: the Moratorium on Implementation of the Rules Relating to Eligibility and Enrollment in Medicare Savings Programs. I knew practically nothing about Medicare Savings Programs before I began to research them. Here in a nutshell is what I found.

Medicare Savings Programs are funded through Medicaid, as bizarre as that seems. Medicaid is run through the States. People who cannot meet the premiums for Medicare can apply for financial assistance through the Medicare Savings Programs funded by Medicaid.

The bloated budget reconciliation bill was so long that stories have repeatedly been reported of legislators who had no idea what all was in it. One of its provisions was to repeal a final rule published on September 21, 2023 titled "Streamlining Medicaid; Medicare Savings Program Eligibility Determination and Enrollment."

Yes, you read that correctly: The final rule addressing Medicare Savings Program Eligibility was published on September 21, 2023; this bill was passed after the House voted on it with a bare majority on July 3, 2025. The proponents of the bill attempted to impose a period within which the rule cannot be enforced before September 30, 2034, or over nine years of enforced future legal non-existence.

In other words, this legislation reduces the number of people who can apply for financial assistance to get treatment for their health issues. And the information they provide will potentially be available to outsiders for at least that amount of time. Private Equity and its Artificial Generative Intelligence factories famously need information for data for their AGI. They make more money without paying a cent to the people whose data they would use. That's what they do; that's their business model.

The reconciliation budget bill -- enacted by the barest possible majorities despite billionaires' money -- contained three moratoriums of more than nine years, or the equivalent of repealing three sets of rules and regs during at least that amount of time. This is one of them. This is a moratorium that reduces Medicare eligibility and at the same time opens up Personally Identifiable Information to billionaires to make profits at your expense and not theirs.

It simply is not subject to a reasonable doubt that either this provision was presented in Congress by someone who did not know about the Congressional Review Act or about its existence for more than 30 years, or it was presented by someone who did not care and ignored it, because either way the quoted repeal did not follow the Comprehensive Review Act. If it had, there would have been reports and opportunities for hearings. None of that occurred here.

Even more important, this legislation would never have passed the timeframes set by the Congressional Review Act to review and possibly reject rules and regulations. Congress gave itself 60 days to review regs under the Congressional Review Act. That did not happen here, either.

The Moratorium on Implementation of the September 21, 2023 Rule Relating to Eligibility and Enrollment in Medicare Savings Programs was stated in the legislation to have been a rejection for nine-plus years of a final rule that, to say again, was published "on September 21, 2023[.]" Even with Congress's notoriously lazy "working" schedule, the Senate and the House were certainly in session for over 60 days during the 21 months and 2 weeks between September 21, 2023 and the first week in July 2025.

There is no mention in the legislation, which the Congressional Review Act would have required, to the effect 'That Congress disapproves the rule submitted by the CMS/HHS relating to eligibility and enrollment in Medicare Savings Programs, and such rule shall have no force or effect until September 30, 2034.'

It is impossible for any reasonable person to imagine that the current regime including its department of justice will enforce the Congressional Review Act or challenge any provision of its own budget legislation. The issue is left to applicants for Medicare and in particular applicants for enrollment in Medicare Savings Programs, their families, organizations concerned for the applicants' health and safety, or one or more or all of these and others. The regime and its Private Equity masters are counting on it being too hard for that to happen.

If it doesn't happen, if Medicare applicants and their families and their organizations and supporters do not challenge these repeals by moratorium on Medicare and on Medicaid, and on CHIP as will be discussed, they will have proven the regime right for one of the few times it has been right about anything so far.

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