McCaskill says GOP Medicare Plan Off the Table

As Congress continues to work towards a compromise on deficit reduction proposals in advance of a vote on the debt ceiling, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill today called for Vice President Biden to keep the House-passed Republican plan to dismantle Medicare out of bipartisan negotiations on deficit reduction. In the letter to Vice President Joe Biden, who is leading the discussions, the senators urged the administration to continue to oppose any GOP efforts to insert their plan to dismantle Medicare into a deficit reduction package. The letter was also signed by Senators Bill Nelson (D-FL), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Jon Tester (D-MT).
“We must protect our nation’s seniors from ending Medicare as they know it, and forcing them to cover the rising costs of healthcare, even if they don’t have the means to do so. While it’s crucial we focus on deficit reduction, this proposal to destroy Medicare is irresponsible and unacceptable,” McCaskill said.

“As the working group moves beyond areas of consensus and into parts of the budget that will require the toughest choices, we wish to identify in advance one proposal that we cannot support in any form—the House-passed plan to dismantle Medicare,” the senators wrote. “For the good of the nation’s seniors, it must remain off the table.”

Despite the public’s overwhelming rejection of the GOP proposal to dismantle Medicare, many Republican leaders are insisting that the plan be part of a package to lower the debt. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan recently declared that the plan to dismantle Medicare is “part of the debt ceiling talks.” And last week, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell echoed that it is “on the table.” Further, the House majority recently reaffirmed its commitment to this plan through the adoption of a rule that declares the House-passed budget shall have “force and effect.”

Numerous reports have revealed the devastating impact the GOP’s Medicare-ending budget would have on the nation’s seniors. Across the country, the GOP’s reckless plan would cost 2 million private sector jobs over the next five years and increase seniors’ out-of-pocket health care costs by $6,359 in 2022 – more than double what they would otherwise pay. Analyses also show that starting next year if the GOP plan is law, nearly four million seniors nationwide will be forced to pay $2.2 billion more in prescription drug costs, and at least one million seniors will have to pay more than $110 million more for annual wellness visits in 2012.