Millions of Americans are faced with tough choices in this economy and millions more find themselves unable to find work and their life savings depleted. At a time when far too many working families are struggling to afford gas, groceries and rising healthcare costs, the Romney/Ryan healthcare plan for America would:
• End Medicare as we know it – shifting more costs onto seniors and giving tax breaks to big corporations.
• End Medicaid as we know it – forcing many seniors to be kicked out of their nursing homes.
• Hand out $4.6 trillion in tax breaks over the next decade to Big Oil, big corporations and millionaires.
• Take away the benefits of the Affordable Care Act, a law that is now helping more than 100 million Americans afford their healthcare, keep their doctor and ending the worst of insurance company abuses.
• Leave Americans facing increased healthcare costs, decreased coverage, or loss of healthcare coverage altogether.
We all want our country to be financially secure, but balancing the budget on the backs of seniors and the middle class while giving huge tax breaks to Big Oil and corporations is the wrong prescription for America.
Americans Are Counting on Medicaid.
- The Romney/Ryan budget calls for $810 billion in cuts to Medicaid and turning it into a block grant to the states. “Block granting” is code for taking away services for seniors, people with disabilities and children.
- Capping Medicaid spending, which a block grant would do, means that many seniors would be turned out of their nursing homes, or lose the choice to remain at home and receive care.
- While Medicaid is often thought of as a program for the very poor, it funds healthcare for nearly two-thirds of all older Americans in nursing homes.
Under the Romney/Ryan Healthcare Plan: Big Corporations Win, Americans Lose.
- Privatizing Medicare and giving seniors a fixed “voucher” to pay for their care will end Medicare as we know it and put insurance companies back in control.
- Senior’s healthcare costs would double under the Romney/Ryan Medicare plan. For example, in 2022 65-year-olds would be forced to pay twice as much for care than they would under current Medicare: $12,500 compared to $6,150.
- The value of the voucher would shrink over time as health care costs increase faster than inflation, meaning older Americans pay more out of pocket.
- The Romney/Ryan plan does nothing to control healthcare costs. Seniors would be left paying the difference between the voucher amount and rising costs of healthcare.
- Their plan would shift greater costs onto seniors and the middle class, while handing $3 trillion in tax breaks to Big Oil and corporations.
We Have a Plan to Protect and Strengthen Our Healthcare:The Affordable Care Act is Working.
The Affordable Care Act makes healthcare coverage more secure by ensuring that working families cannot be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition, or lose their coverage or be forced into bankruptcy if a family member gets sick. Romney and Ryan would take away all of these existing benefits and much more:
- Ensuring young adults up to age 26 can gain coverage through their parent’s plans.
- Free preventive care and elimination of co-pays for essential healthcare such as check-ups, cancer screenings and contraception.
- Cracking down on waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare and delivering much needed prescription drug savings to seniors.
- Stopping unjustified premium hikes by insurance companies.
- As a result of the healthcare law:
- 86 million Americans have benefitted from free preventive services like mammograms for women or wellness visits for seniors.
- 17 million children with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied coverage.
- 12.8 million Americans will benefit from rebates because their insurance company spent too much of their premium dollars on administrative costs or CEO bonuses.
- 6.6 million young adults have the security of coverage until age 26.
- 5.3 million Americans on Medicare have saved an average of $600 on their prescription drugs.
- 70,000 Americans with pre-existing conditions now have the security of coverage.
- $10.7 billion has been recovered by cracking down on waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare all while securing and protecting the benefits seniors have earned.