Arizona Senator John McCain Trying to Scare Nebraska Seniors With Misleading Robocalls
Arizona Senator John McCain Trying to Scare Nebraska Seniors With Misleading Robocalls About Medicare
Read About It Here: National Journal, “McCain Tapes NRSC Robocalls”
McCain Amendment Has Nothing to Do With Protecting Medicare for Nebraska Seniors and Everything to Do With Protecting Over $100 Billion in Handouts to Big Insurance Under the So-Called ‘Medicare Advantage’ Program – Handouts That Are Forcing All Seniors Enrolled in Regular Medicare to Pay Higher Premiums
New Web Video: Who Do You Trust to Defend Medicare: the GOP and Big Insurance Companies – or the Democrats and the AARP?
Click Here to View “Who Do You Trust?”
Washington D.C. – Americans United for Change fired back today at the national Republican Party’s fear and smear campaign targeting Nebraska’s seniors with robocalls featuring Senator John McCain that falsely claim the health insurance reform bill before the Senate would “[cut] vital Medicare coverage for our seniors.” In the call, Senator McCain calls on Senator Ben Nelson to support his amendment to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that seeks not to protect Medicare, but to continue doling out more than $120 billion in hugely wasteful government subsidies to private health insurance companies that offer the so-called “Medicare Advantage” program -- a program that disadvantages millions of seniors enrolled in traditional Medicare by forcing them to pay higher premiums.
FACT: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Would Strengthen Medicare for All Nebraska Seniors; CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION
Americans United released a new web video called “Who Do You Trust?” in response to the national Republican Party’s laughable claims to now be champions of Medicare after opposing the program at its inception and fighting to undermine it every day since. Tom McMahon, Acting Executive Director, issued the following statement:
“It’s unfortunate that Arizona Senator McCain would deliberately try to scare Nebraska seniors about their Medicare coverage, when the plain fact is, according to the AARP,” “None of the health care reform proposals being considered by Congress would cut Medicare benefits or increase your out-of-pocket costs for Medicare services.” Make no mistake: the McCain amendment has nothing to do with protecting Medicare for Nebraska’s seniors and everything to do with protecting the health insurance industry’s profits.
“McCain’s amendment is about nothing more than protecting over $100 billion in needless government handouts awarded to private insurance companies that poorly reinvent the Medicare wheel at a far greater cost. Worse, these massive overpayments to private insurance are forcing Nebraska seniors and people with disabilities enrolled in traditional Medicare to pay higher premiums. The fact is, reining in these overpayments will strengthen Medicare for all beneficiaries. After rooting for Medicare to ‘wither on the vine’ since its inception, the national Republican Party is fooling no one by pretending now to be champions of one of the government’s greatest success stories -- especially as they today stand alongside insurance industry lobbyists and in opposition to the AARP.”
According to the Economic Policy Institute, “In a nut shell, Medicare Advantage plans are private plans funded through Medicare to provide similar benefits, but at a 14% higher cost on average, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), an independent Congressional agency.”
EPI further notes: “The [insurance] industry uses the overpayments to offer sweeteners like free dental check-ups or reduced premiums that entice seniors to enroll in the plans and justify their existence to Congress. As MedPAC Chairman Glenn Hackbarth recently testified, the enhanced benefits provided to Medicare Advantage enrollees are “overwhelmingly…not financed out of plan efficiency, but rather by the Medicare program and other beneficiaries.” These overpayments, which come at the expense of other Medicare enrollees and the long-term health of the program, go toward profits and higher administrative costs, including the cost of marketing the plans to seniors.”
According to a recent report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “by increasing Medicare costs, these overpayments also drive up premiums for beneficiaries in traditional Medicare by $86 per year for a couple, according to the chief actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services….More than 31 million seniors and people with disabilities enrolled in regular Medicare are forced to pay higher premiums each month to subsidize these excess payments. The overpayments also ‘contribute to the worsening long-range financial sustainability of the Medicare program,’ as Glenn Hackbarth, MedPAC’s chairman, has warned Congress. They advance the date when the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will become insolvent by 17 months.”
“When the Republican Party tries to alarm seniors about “cuts” to Medicare – what they’re really talking about are these “sweeteners” that only some Medicare Advantage enrollees receive but that ALL beneficiaries of traditional Medicare pay for through higher and higher premiums,” continued McMahon. “But here’s the thing: the insurance companies don’t have to touch these extras at all if Congress passes health insurance reform – reform that won’t scrap the Medicare Advantage program, just the overpayments the program receives way above and beyond what traditional Medicare does.”
“Here’s a novel idea for the big insurance companies that are still going to make huge profits from this program with or without the wasteful subsidies they currently enjoy: how about looking first at your massive CEO compensation and administrative and marketing costs before you consider making any adjustments to these ‘sweeteners?’”
“Insurance giant Humana’s CEO Michael McCallister, for instance, made $4,764,309 last year. Cigna’s CEO H. Edward Hanway made $12,236,740 last year and is retiring with a $73 million golden parachute. “
“Are there any sweeteners they can do without?”
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Script: “Who Do You Trust?”
Trusting these guys to protect Medicare is like trusting this guy to sell you a used car?
Ronald Reagan: “Compulsory Health Insurance of senior citizens… this was simply an excuse to bring about Socialized Medicine.”
Bob Dole: “I was there, fighting the fight, voting against Medicare.”
In 1995, Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he wanted Medicare to “wither on the vine.” (New York Times, 7/20/96)
And as late as this spring, the AP reported that:
House Republicans were proposing a budget alternative that eventually would end Medicare as it is presently known. (AP, 4/1/09)
Who do you trust to defend Medicare – the Republicans and Insurance Companies, or the Democrats and AARP?
Tell your member of the Senate to support health insurance reform now.