Medicare Costs Are New Focus for Candidates

[papau]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/12/politics/campaign/12medicare.html

Medicare Costs Are New Focus for Candidates
By ROBERT PEAR and CARL HULSE

ASHINGTON, Sept. 11 - Medicare has suddenly emerged as a volatile issue in this year's elections, as Democrats are vowing to roll back a sharp increase in premiums announced this month and the Bush campaign is seeking to blame lawmakers, including Senator John Kerry, for the rise.

The trading of accusations reflects efforts by both parties to seek advantage with older voters.

Democrats, hoping to reclaim an issue central to their success in past elections, said they would try to block the 17.4 percent increase that will come out of Social Security checks next year.

But in a new television advertisement and in official statements, President Bush's campaign is trying to pin the responsibility for the increase on Congress and on Mr. Kerry, the Democrats' presidential nominee.

Republicans said the increase in premiums was automatic, and they attributed it to a formula over which the White House had no control. Moreover, they pointed out that Mr. Kerry had voted for the law that established the formula in 1997 as a way to bolster the finances of Medicare.

The formula was part of a huge deficit-reduction bill approved in the Senate by a vote of 85 to 15. <snip>