Carolyn Speaks on the Need to Save Medicare
On July 1, the 45th anniversary of the beginning of the Medicare program, Congressmember Carolyn Maloney (D-Queens/Manhattan) spoke to seniors at the HANAC Senior Center in Astoria about her efforts to fight plans put forward by the Republican House majority to end Medicare as we know it. On April 15, House Republicans passed a budget by a vote of 235 to 193 that would end Medicare as we know it – instead giving seniors an increasingly inadequate subsidy to buy private insurance.
“Medicare has transformed the lives of millions of seniors for the better over the last 45 years, and, with Social Security, helped ease the fear and insecurity that all too often used to accompany Americans’ retirement years. Indeed, before Medicare, only about half of seniors had health insurance – and now health insurance coverage is nearly universal among American seniors. So on this important anniversary, I want to let seniors know what I and my colleagues in the New York Congressional delegation are doing to preserve Medicare and fight attempts in Congress to end the program as we know it. Simply put, we will never let that happen,” Maloney said.
“The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office [CBO] states that under the GOP plan, seniors ‘would bear a much larger share of their healthcare costs than they would under the traditional program’. According to the CBO, the GOP plan would more than double the typical senior’s out-of-pocket healthcare spending in 2022, compared to what their costs would be under traditional Medicare – increasing out-of-pocket costs here in New York by more than $6,500 per senior each year.
“Medicare is just too important to mess around with for political purposes. The bottom line is that Congress needs to focus on what’s really important to most Americans – creating jobs and getting our economy back on track, not ending Medicare as we know it. That’s what I’m focused on.”
Read the full article: Maloney Speaks To Seniors On Efforts To Save Medicare
