U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy strongly denounced the Bush administration's 17.5 percent increase in Medicare premiums.

"The Bush administration promised seniors that promoting private managed care as an alternative to the traditional Medicare system would contain costs. Turns out the administration was wrong," McCarthy said. "Instead seniors are stuck with more expensive premiums and prescription drug plans that put drug company profits before seniors' needs."

Under the administration's rule change, the monthly premium paid by Medicare Part B beneficiaries, which covers physician services, outpatient hospital services, certain home health services, durable medical equipment and other essential care, will now be $78.20, an increase of $11.60 a month and $139 per year.

Medicare premiums decreased slightly between 1995 and 2000. Between 2000 and 2005, by contrast, premiums are on pace to rise by a cumulative 72 percent. "The bottom line is our seniors are paying more for health care, after years of decreasing costs," McCarthy added.

Medicare deductibles and premiums are updated annually in accordance with formulas set by law. By law, the federal government pays 75 percent of the cost of Part B benefits and the Part B premium covers the remaining 25 percent.

Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy voted to protect the overtime rights of millions of American workers recently. The amendment to the Department of Labor Appropriations Bill, which passed 223 to 193, halts the implementation of the Department of Labor's new regulations that strips overtime rights and pay from millions of workers.

"This is a real victory for working families," McCarthy said. "These misguided regulations mean longer hours and less pay for many Long Islanders, whose budget is already stretched thin. This vote is an important first step in reversing the largest middle class pay cut in decades," she added. The legislation to reverse the overtime rule now awaits action in the U.S. Senate.

Nationwide, the new regulations deny overtime pay to 30,000 nursery and pre-school teachers, 1.9 million low-level working supervisors in service industry jobs and more than 900,000 employees without a college or graduate degree who would be reclassified as "professional employees" because employers will be able to substitute work experience for a degree.

In addition, anyone designated a "team leader" on a "major project" by their employer would be denied overtime, even if they are not supervisors. This provision could strip nearly 2.3 million workers of their overtime protections. The regulations also deny overtime to 160,000 workers in the financial services industries, 130,000 chefs and 87,000 computer programmers.

In March 2003, the Bush administration came forward with their proposed regulations on overtime. These regulations were finalized in April 2004, after only one hearing in the House Education and the Workplace Committee. House Democrats offered amendments and motions to allow an increase in overtime protections for low-wage workers, and to prohibit the administration from going ahead with overtime cuts for six million other workers. But all efforts to roll back the new rules were defeated.

A July report authored by former officials at the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division concluded every single substantive change made to the overtime pay rules - except for the salary test increase - actually weakens workers' eligibility for overtime pay. The authors also wrote that the changes "will likely result in greater confusion and a profusion of litigation - outcomes that the Department explicitly sought to avoid."