DELAURO ON REPUBLICAN PLAN TO END MEDICARE AS WE KNOW IT

Holds town hall event to discuss proposed changes, address concerns

Washington, DC— Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-3) visited the Baldwin Senior Center in Stratford, CT today and held a town hall meeting on the proposed changes in the 2012 budget to Medicare and Medicaid and the potential impact on Connecticut seniors.

The budget for 2012 seeks to end Medicare as we know it, transforming it into a voucher system and shifting thousands of dollars in additional costs onto every senior. Preventive health services currently provided for free by Medicare, such as mammograms, colonoscopies, and wellness exams, will end. The proposed budget would also slash funding for Medicaid, which provides long-term care and health care services for those with disabilities to millions of Americans, and convert the program into an inadequate block grant.

Congresswoman DeLauro was joined by Brad Plebani, Deputy Director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, and took questions from the audience about how the 2012 budget will affect their Medicare and Medicaid services.

“Governing is about choices. Everyone in the Congress agrees that we need to bring down the deficit and cut programs that do not work. The question before us is how we choose to get there. I believe we should start by ending special interest waste, tax breaks and subsidies for oil companies.

“But the House Majority made different choices. It asks the deepest sacrifice of our seniors, and those who have been working and saving in preparation for retirement by ending Medicare. Their plan will eliminate the preventive health services currently provided for free, re-open the prescription drug ‘donut hole’ and deny seniors the ability to afford their medications, and shift thousands of dollars in more cost onto every senior. It is estimated that the typical 65-year-old will be eligible for $8000 in premium support under their plan, but the total cost of health insurance and care would total $20, 513— a difference of $12, 513. And a typical 65-year-old would see their annual out of pocket costs more than double under the Republican plan than under Medicare – over $6,000 in additional payments every year.

“In addition, this plan proposes major cuts to Medicaid, which is the main way middle-class and low-income seniors get coverage for long-term care, including nursing homes. In fact, nearly two-thirds of Medicaid spending goes toward seniors and people with disabilities. Cuts to this critical program could mean disaster for the more than 5.8 million seniors over 65 years of age and 10.3 million individuals with disabilities relied on Medicaid for long-term coverage and medical care.

“This is not the right way for our country. What I learned from my parents is a fundamental set of values – that we have responsibilities to the generations that have come before us. We should not be targeting Medicare and long-term care to cut the deficit. We should represent the common-sense, mainstream priorities of the American people. We have to do what is right, and that means standing up for seniors, and standing up for Medicare and Medicaid.”