Time to move further on defending Medicare

[Martha Koester]

Meeting at the Beacon Hill Library
Saturday June 11th, 1-3PM

2821 Beacon Ave S
Seattle, WA 98144-5813


You may have heard about the intense anger sparked by Paul Ryan's plan
to eliminate traditional Medicare. Though the Senate defeated this
after it was passed by the House, the plan is still very much on the
table. Less discussed is Medicaid, which the plan would turn into
block grants, endanering access to health care for vulonerable poor
people. Also, 70% of seniors in nursing homes depend on Medicaid--what
will happen to them if they are cut off?

We need to reach out to stakeholders and make sure they stay informed
on this. Help us plan outreach to them.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/22/969251/-Town-halls-turn-hostile-for-Republicans-over-tax-cuts-for-rich,-Medicare

It's August, 2009 again. Except this time the disgruntled town meeting
attendees aren't teabaggers, they're everybody. And the targets are
now Republicans. Here's Rep. Pat Meehan (R-PA), at a town hall meeting
facing constituents over a broken campaign promise to not privatize
Medicare. An angry constituent confronts him: "If you voted to abolish
Medicare, how would you explain that to people in their 50′s out of a
job?!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mzYN2QY11zk

It's not just Meehan, or the most prominent example so far, Medicare
abolishment plan author, Rep. Paul Ryan who was booed by his
constituents at a town meeting for defending tax breaks for the
wealthy. Turns out, it's happening in districts all over the country.
HuffPo's Jason Linkins has a round-up of all the GOP members facing
major hostility at home for their vote to end Medicare.


http://www.truth-out.org/paul-ryan-your-pockets-government-people-who-hate-you

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan put out a budget proposal
last week that will leave the vast majority of future retirees without
decent health care by ending Medicare as we know it. According to the
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis, most middle-income
retirees would have to pay almost half of their income to purchase a
Medicare equivalent insurance packageby 2030. They would be paying
much more than half of their income in later years.

<snip>

The proposal to end Medicare relies on market efficiencies to get
health care costs under control, as though we had not tried this
before. Has Representative Ryan never heard of Medicare Advantage or
Medicare Plus Choice? Doesn't he know that we already have the
opportunity to see the effectiveness of private insurers in containing
health care costs in the vast non-Medicare insurance market?

Based on this extensive experience, we know that the private insurance
market does not control costs. This is why the CBO calculated that
Ryan's plan would hugely raise the cost of health care for seniors. If
every senior got a Medicare equivalent policy under Representative
Ryan's plan (which most will not be able to afford), the added cost of
his system would be more than $20 trillion over the next 75 years.


http://www.npr.org/2011/03/29/134942260/democrats-rally-to-support-social-security

Rep. CANTOR: I mean, just from the very notion that it said that 50
percent of beneficiaries under the Social Security program use those
moneys as their sole source of income. So we've got to protect today's
seniors. But for the rest of us? For - you know, listen. We're going
to have to come to grips with the fact that these programs cannot
exist if we want America to be what we want America to be.


http://www.epi.org/analysis_and_opinion/entry/ryan_plan_to_slash_medicaid_will_cost_the_economy_nearly_two_million_privat/

Ryan plan to slash Medicaid will cost the economy nearly two million
private sector jobs