Who Do You Trust to Defend Medicare
New Web Video: Who Do You Trust to Defend Medicare: the GOP and Big Insurance Companies – or the Democrats and the AARP?
Senate Republicans Rally Behind McCain Amendment to Protect $120 Billion in Handouts to Big Insurance Under the So-Called ‘Medicare Advantage’ Program – Handouts That Are Forcing More than 31 Million Americans Enrolled in Regular Medicare to Pay Higher Premiums
Americans United for Change: “After Decades Trying to Undermine Medicare, Senate Republicans Are as Credible as a Used Car Salesman Now Claiming to be the Program’s Best Friends”
Click Here to View “Who Do You Trust?”
Washington D.C. – Senate Republicans are all set to take their first official action in the health care debate: an amendment to protect insurance industry profits. Republicans are rallying behind an amendment to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, sponsored by Senator John McCain, that seeks 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. Americans United for Change released a new web video today called “Who Do You Trust?” in response to the Senate Republicans’ laughable claims to now be champions of Medicare after opposing the program at its inception and fighting to undermine it every day since.
SEE ALSO: Huffington Post: McCain Contradicts Himself With First GOP Health Care Amendment
Tom McMahon, Acting Executive Director, Americans United for Change: “Make no mistake: the McCain amendment has nothing to do with what’s best for America’s seniors and everything to do with protecting the health insurance industry’s profits. Follow the money and it’s not surprising that this is the very first action Senate Republicans intend to take in the health care debate. This amendment is about nothing more than protecting $120 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 31 million 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, Senate Republicans are fooling no one by pretending now to bechampions of one of the government’s greatest success stories -- especially as they stand alongside insurance industry lobbyists and in opposition to the AARP.”
Contrary to claims made today by Senate Republicans, 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.”
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.”
And 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.”
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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.