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Statement
by Robert M. Hayes, President of the Medicare Rights Center,
regarding
President Bush's plan to turn the Medicare program over to for-profit
insurance companies The
problem is not Medicare's structure, which works better than any private
marketplace structure to ensure universal coverage and access to health care
people need.
The problem is Medicare needs a prescription drug benefit. Medicare
without prescription drug coverage means that millions of older Americans
will be forced to go without critical medications, suffering unnecessarily
and dying prematurely. Every
day the Medicare Rights Center hears from people who are forced to choose
between life-saving prescription drugs and their dinner. The
way to fix Medicare so that older Americans can afford the health care they
need is to expand it to cover prescription drugs. It's not complicated, and
it will cost some money. But Americans are willing to delay or do without
tax cuts to cover this cost.
All the polls agree.
Avoiding this simple solution will continue to push more of our
parents and grandparents into poverty.
Congress
should not accept the President's invitation to gut one of the nation's
greatest success stories.
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