THE MEDICARE PROMISE OUR SENIORS DEPEND UPON
Medicare is under attack. Created to provide seniors with basic protections as they encounter medical issues during their golden years, Medicare seniors are yet another victim of the federal Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) and the Washington takeover of health care.
The federal government has made $37 trillion worth of benefit promises to seniors. The Medicare Advantage program in particular has given millions of seniors a choice of several private insurance plans that offer comprehensive benefits, better access to doctors and often lower out-of-pocket costs for health care. ObamaCare’s severe cuts to Medicare have sent a clear message to our nation’s seniors: your health is not worth protecting. Millions of seniors will lose the Medicare benefits they depend on in order to live a longer, healthier life.
BREAKING THE MEDICARE PROMISE
ObamaCare breaks the Medicare promise to our seniors in order to pay for a new promise of Medicaid expansion. ObamaCare assures states that do expand Medicaid eligibility—mostly to working-age, non-disabled adults with no kids—that the federal government will pay 100 percent of their expansion costs from 2014 to 2016 and 90 percent thereafter, indefinitely. The financing for ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion relies on both cuts to seniors’ Medicare and more than $1 trillion in new taxes. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), $716 billion will be raided from the Medicare program over the next 10 years.