GOP wants to end Medicare guarantee

Most of us have a 1.45 percent deduction in our paychecks for Medicare. No one likes taxes, but we understand that paying this Medicare tax guarantees we will have health care in our old age. Given the ever-increasing cost of care, it’s good to know we can count on that insurance.

But the Republican budget released yesterday in Congress takes away the Medicare guarantee. Under the Republican budget you can work hard all your life, pay your taxes, and still be left without the security of Medicare. Instead there will be a cap on how much assistance you can get—no matter how sick you become.

The Republican plan creates a two-class system. By offering a voucher to buy private insurance, if it is cheaper, Republicans encourage people who are healthy to get out of Medicare. Those who are left are the sickest and most expensive patients. Anyone who understands how insurance system works understands that this is a prescription to kill Medicare.

Don’t take my word for it. Here is what the American Associate of Retired Persons, or AARP, says about how the Republican plan will hurt us.

By creating a [voucher] system for future Medicare beneficiaries, the proposal is likely to simply increase costs for beneficiaries while removing Medicare’s promise of secure health coverage—a guarantee that future seniors have contributed to through a lifetime of hard work.

“The proposal lacks balance,” says AARP, and “jeopardizes the health and economic security of older Americans.”

Republicans also plan to kill the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” if they can. It is true there are problems that will have to be fixed. But today, on the two-year anniversary of the new law, seniors in the Marianas are already benefiting from extra help with prescription drug costs and taking advantage of free check-ups that Obamacare provides. And all of us are protected from insurance companies dropping our coverage if we get sick, billing us into bankruptcy because of annual or lifetime limits, and, soon, denying us coverage if we have a pre-existing condition.

The Commonwealth government has received $3 million from the Affordable Care Act to fight unreasonable insurance premiums, promote preventive care, and bring health professionals to people’s homes to help with infant and early childhood development. And there is over $100 million in new Medicaid funding over the next eight years that the Commonwealth has already started to draw down.

All Americans deserve the security of health care, especially in old age. But the Republican plan to end the Medicare guarantee and repeal the Affordable Care Act takes us away from that worthy goal. As your representative in Congress, I will keep working to make sure we all have access to health care at a price we can afford, as individuals and as a nation.