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Support Senate Filibuster of Medicare Privatization Effort, Shore Up Wavering Senators
THE FIRST CLOTURE VOTE IS SCHEDULED AT 12:30pm EST ON MONDAY. Your calls and letters are working, and several senators are filibustering this dangerous and misleading bill, including three presidential candidates who returned to Washington to participate. But several usually-supportive senators are on the fence and all of them need to hear from you. They will be voting shortly after noon on Monday, and the Administration needs 60 votes to stop the democratic filibuster of this bill. PLEASE ACT THIS VERY MINUTE -- THE SENATE SWITCHBOARD IS OPEN ALL NIGHT TO TAKE YOUR CALLS.
Action Needed:
Emails are helpful, but phone calls are even more helpful. So go ahead and send an email message and then pick up the phone and call the Senate Switchboard at 202-224-3121. Ask for each of your senators' offices in turn, and leave a "vote no on cloture and vote no on the Medicare bill" message with the person who answers the phone at each of your senator's offices.
Background:
Senators Ted Kennedy (Mass.) and John Kerry (Mass.) plan to lead a filibuster on the bill in order to delay the vote and eventually defeat the measure. Senators Joe Lieberman (Conn.) and John Edwards (N.C.) have returned to Washington to oppose the bill, and both Kerry and Lieberman have said they will not attend a Democratic presidential debate in Iowa in order to filibuster the bill in the Senate. Disappointingly, Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have reportedly said they will vote for the bill.
Please send a message immediately to your senators, urging them to filibuster the Medicare and prescription drug benefit bill that would use the carrot of a weak prescription drug benefit for seniors to ultimately dismantle the Medicare program. This legislation would under-fund the prescription drug benefit, would place Medicare in direct competition with private insurers (eventually spelling the demise of Medicare by skimming off the healthiest seniors into private plans).
The Republican leadership is ramming this bad bill through Congress (the House passed the legislation 220-215 after an all-night session on Saturday), even though members of Congress did not have adequate time to review the exact language in the nearly-700-page bill and Democrats had very little input. This plan would clearly hurt many women who have greater prescription drug costs and less income, and would especially disadvantage low-income, single and disabled women by taking away part of their current comprehensive coverage.
Again, please send a message immediately supporting a filibuster in the Senate and the ultimate defeat of this deceptive legislation.
History and Talking Points:
On Saturday, Nov. 22, the U.S. House of Representatives passed (by a narrow vote of 220-215) a major piece of legislation (H.R. 1) that would revamp the 38-year-old Medicare program for seniors and provide a limited prescription drug benefit. The agreement has been hammered out in secret with only two Democrats, Sen. Max Baucus (Mont.) and Sen. John Breaux (La.), participating. The strategic pre-dawn vote allowed little time for members to review the complexities and exact language of this critically-important bill-so that few legislators understand what is actually in the bill.
The bill moved immediately to the Senate for debate, with Republicans aiming toward a quick vote on Monday, Nov. 24.
Virtually every aspect of what is known of the legislation indicates that it was written by powerful pharmaceutical companies and the insurance industry that stand to gain billions of dollars with these changes. It amounts to a gigantic pay-off from members of Congress and the White House who have received millions in campaign contributions.
Essentially, Republicans are using the much desired prescription drug benefit as leverage to enact fundamental changes in a Medicare program that would entice healthy seniors to move to a private managed care plan for lower premiums and better benefits. The result would be poorer and sicker seniors and disabled persons remaining in traditional Medicare, driving up costs while Medicare funding is constrained under new spending caps. The intended outcome is to strangle and eventually dissolve Medicare, a program that has worked very well for seniors for the last four decades. Private insurers would then get billions of public dollars in subsidies to cover seniors with inadequate benefit packages.
Worse, the legislation would not allow the federal government to negotiate for lower drug prices and would limit re-importation of less expensive drugs from other countries. Currently, the government has negotiating authority--a very important ability when drug prices in the U.S. are exceedingly high and unaffordable by many seniors. As is obvious, this change would be an incredible windfall for drug companies!
In short, the bill would:
Adopt a Medicare voucher ("premium support"), changing the program from guaranteed coverage to a specific benefit plan, shifting risk and cost to seniors and persons with disabilities.
Coerce seniors into private plans by initially offering better benefits and lower premiums by subsidizing, with tax-payer funds, private insurers who would be free to increase costs and restrict benefits over time.
Undermine retiree coverage allowing employers to drop or restrict current coverage for 4 million seniors who receive a drug benefit under their retiree health plan.
Create a Medicare funding crisis by establishing a new cost "containment" policy under new budget rules that would make the program insolvent 16 years sooner than expected.
Scale back drug coverage for the poorest seniors by prohibiting Medicare from filling in the gaps in the new Medicare drug benefit, as Medicaid now does for other benefits. The same action would place further burdens on fiscally-strapped states who may have to cut coverage under the child health insurance program, and other social service programs to pay their required percentage of costs.
Give a multi-billion dollar gift to drug manufacturers by prohibiting the federal government from negotiating prices, as the government can now do, and would seriously restrict re-importation of affordable drugs from other countries.
Add Health Savings Accounts that are essentially tax shelters for the wealthy.
Woefully under-fund the prescription drug benefit by allotting only $400 billion dollars over a ten-year period, amounting to only one-fifth of the total expenditures made by seniors.
Again, please urge your senators to filibuster and ultimately defeat the deceptive Medicare and prescription drug benefit.
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