I doubt if many of our colleagues in the press have noticed that the Bush administration, with the aid of the last Republican congress, began on January 1 an unprecedented invasion of the privacy of some 43 million older and disabled Americans, beneficiaries of Medicare. That most of the press did not notice is understandable. Most of the press pays little attention to the details of programs such as Medicare or to issues facing older people.

Here’s what I’m talking about: One of the lesser known provisions of the December, 2003, Medicare Modernization Act, which created the Part D drug benefit, called for sharp raises in the monthly Part B premiums for Medicare enrollees who earn more than $80,000 a year (or $160,000 per couple). Never mind that this provision, which took effect this year, was a violation the Medicare’s valued principle of universality, a step backward from the gathering national movement toward universal health care.

But I digress. As a result of this provision, the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration are authorized to inspect the tax returns of millions of Medicare beneficiaries to determine if their “modified adjusted gross income” for 2005 reaches high enough to pay the much higher Part B premium, which covers doctor bills and diagnostic tests. The ordinary premium, which is getting expensive, is $93.50 a month. The fee for more affluent enrollees, depending on their income, ranges from $105.80 to $161.40, and it will run higher in coming years.

The Social Security Administration figures several million Medicare beneficiaries will be hit with higher premiums, including at least two million whose incomes will rise only temporarily when they sell a home, withdraw from an IRA or cash in some savings to repair a house or pay for medical costs not covered by Medicare. The point is, as Social Security says on its Web site, many Americans will be appealing the increase. Thus their 1040s, which until now belonged only to the taxpayers and were not shared by the IRS, will become subject to possible mischief.

Only a few years ago the press was up in arms because the tax returns of many of us on a president’s “enemies list,” were subject to inspection by the executive branch. Now, each tax return of people on Medicare will be open to inspection by the bureaucrats at Medicare.