Democrats Throw Senior Citizens, and Women, under the Bus

I am sickened by the Senate’s vote today to retain the cuts in Medicare in the health care bill. I hope Ted Kennedy is resting peacefully; his dream comes true…health care for all even if it kills off the elderly in the process. 

Not only are these cuts anti-senior citizen, they is anti-woman, because women live longer than men.

According to Senator John Kyl of Arizona, this is what the Medicare cuts will do:

…This is about $500 billion in Medicare cuts as follows: $137.5 billion from hospitals who treat seniors; $120 billion from Medicare Advantage, which is the insurance program that provides benefits to seniors which will be cut more than in half as a result of this $120 billion reduction; $14.6 billion from nursing homes that treat seniors; $42.1 billion from home health care for seniors; and $7.7 billion from hospice care, one of the most cruel cuts of all.

And according to a friend of mine, the changes are already happening. She uses Medicare Advantage and suddenly AARP has appeared on her plan. And what has this lovely organization that purportedly represents the elderly done to her plan?  Well, all of the co-pays have increased and many procedures that previously required no co-pay now require 20%.  Additional days in the hospital now require a co-pay of $200/day and the plan does not include dental benefits, hearing aids/testing, or eyeglasses.  She says she has checked around for other plans and they suddenly have all started cutting benefits.

If the Democrats continue on this route, I can tell you this much, it will be a cold day in hell before I ever vote for a Democrat again, and that includes for the office of dogcatcher. 

If you are a senior, a woman who has longevity in her family (my mother lived to 94), or someone who has parents that are seniors, get on that phone tomorrow and call your Democratic Senator; let them know that dogcatcher is too high level of a position for anyone who votes for these cuts. 

 

Tell your Demcratic Senator this is their future....if they are lucky. (photo NO/Times-Picayune)
 

Comments

[msfinething]

These billion dollar cuts are also going to be eliminating jobs for thousands of health care workers at a time when other jobs are not available.

[Puma for Life]

absolutely right; the one sector of the economy that is growing is health care and that is , of course, exactly what Obama is attacking.

[Rebel]

So the only healthy sector of the economy is health care; I guess that too will be destroyed. Terrific blog you have here. I'm a Carolina PUMA too.

[Roberta]

Have you looked at other Medicare options besides the Medicare Advantage plan from AARP? I recommend using the search and compare tool at http://www.PlanPrescriber.com. Enter your zip code and you will be given all the Medicare and Prescription Drug plan options in your area. You can also enter your current plan and compare it to other available options. I used this search tool before making my annual enrollment period decision and am glad I did.