Medicare is under attack

I’m not going to mince words. Medicare is under attack. Whether it is the recent statements by presidential candidate Jeb Bush outrageously calling Medicare “an actuarially unsound healthcare system,” or this year’s U.S. House and Senate budgets, which cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare and shift costs onto the backs of older Americans, we must fight back.

For 50 years, Medicare has guaranteed quality and affordable health care to older adults and people with disabilities. It was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965 and continues, to this day, to be one of the pillars of our health care system.

Please, stand with the Alliance for Retired Americans and The Nation in calling on Congress to reject cuts that shift costs onto the backs of seniors and disabled workers, and instead look for ways to strengthen and preserve Medicare for current and future generations.

The recent Medicare Trustees report confirms that Medicare is not in crisis, and, in fact, continues to be in strong fiscal health with sufficient funds to cover its obligations until 2030. But this has not stopped virtually all Republicans and some Democrats from calling for deep cuts to Medicare -- transforming it from a guarantee to a voucher program.

The U.S. House budget seeks to destroy traditional Medicare by funneling younger and healthier retirees into private health plans, leaving older, sicker beneficiaries in what will become a more expensive and less competitive program – literally letting Medicare whither on the vine.

Today, Medicare serves 54 million older adults and people with disabilities. It is critical that we protect and strengthen America’s only guaranteed health care system.

Join us in demanding that in Medicare’s 50th year we reject calls for deep cuts and privatization.

Thank you for taking action and fighting for the future of our earned benefits.

Sincerely,

Richard Fiesta

Executive Director 
Alliance for Retired Americans