[Peace-discuss] CCHCC ACTION ALERT: OPPOSE MEDICARE BILL

[Brooke Anderson]

Dear Friends,

This message is to alert you to an obscene process now taking place 
in the United States Congress -- and to ask you to take IMMEDIATE 
ACTION to try to put a stop to the process.

As you read this, there is a bill before the United States Senate 
that would fundamentally undermine and threaten the very existence of 
Medicare -- the health program that has well-served seniors and 
people with disabilities for the past 40 years.  Disguised as a 
"prescription drug benefit," the bill would provide very meager (if 
any) relief to Medicare beneficiaries in their drug expenses.  What 
it WOULD do is funnel billions of taxpayer dollars into the pockets 
of the pharmaceutical industry and HMOs, while also enacting 
provisions that would ultimately result in a reduction of benefits -- 
and perhaps even the utter destruction of Medicare.

[NOTE: For more information on this bill and this issue, see the end 
of this message, where we have pasted in the text of a letter CCHCC 
sent to both Senator Richard Durbin and Senator Peter Fitzgerald.]

The bill has passed the House of Representatives (through underhanded 
tactics) and is now in the Senate.  The next few days will be 
essential. Please email or call Senator Richard Durbin and Senator 
Peter Fitzgerald IMMEDIATELY and tell them to do whatever they can to 
defeat the Medicare bill.  Tell them that Congress should start over 
from scratch on a new bill after the New Year.

Here is the contact information:

Sen. Richard Durbin
email: dick at durbin.senate.gov
Washington, DC telephone: 202/224-2152
Springfield telephone: 217/492-4062

Sen. Peter Fitzgerald
email: senator_fitzgerald at fitzgerald.senate.gov
Washington, DC telephone: 202/224-2854
Springfield telephone: 217/492-5089

When you contact your Senators, please copy (or blind carbon copy) 
brooke at shout.net to any emails you send (or email us to let us know 
you called or faxed them) so that we can keep track of how many CCHCC 
supporters take action on this issue.

Thank you for your work and your commitment to health care justice. 
If you have any questions, feel free to contact Bill Mueller at 
352-6533, ext. 13, or at wwmuelle at shout.net.

Thanks!
Champaign County Health Care Consumers

p.s. -- here's the text of the letter that CCHCC sent to Sen. 
Fitzgerald and Sen. Durbin:

*********************************************************
November 20, 2003

The Honorable Peter G. Fitzgerald
555 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510


Dear Senator Fitzgerald:

I am writing on behalf of the Board, staff, and constituents of Champaign
County Health Care Consumers to express strong opposition to the
"compromise" Medicare legislation now being pushed by some Congressional
leaders.  This is a classic case of "no bill is better than a bad bill."
The "compromise" version is most definitely a "bad bill."  We urge you to
work to defeat the bill - including supporting a Senate filibuster if that
becomes necessary.

There are a number of things unacceptable about the bill.  Let me mention a
handful of them:

· The much-ballyhooed prescription drug benefit for seniors falls far short
of meeting the need.  Consumers Union (press release, 11/17/03) has said
that the money set aside for the benefit would cover only 22% of
"anticipated drug costs, leaving consumers to foot the rest of the bill."
Moreover, according to Jeanne Lambrew of the Center for American Progress
(Medicare Legislation: Think Twice, 11/14/03), the bill "would allow
private plans administering the drug benefit to dictate which drugs are
covered and how much seniors must pay for them - in effect, permitting
insurers to ration access for chronically ill seniors and people with
disabilities who need prescription drug coverage the most."

· So to whom would the real "benefit" go?  Apparently, the pharmaceutical
industry.  In a report issued by Boston University's Alan Sager and Deborah
Socolar at the end of October, analysis shows that 61.1% of the Medicare
funds dedicated to the new prescription drug benefit "will remain in the
hands of drug makers as added profits.  This windfall means an estimated
$139 billion in increased profits over eight years for the world's most
profitable industry."  Sager and Socolar also point out that the proposed
legislation would do nothing to restrain high drug prices - and would
actually prohibit Medicare from "acting to negotiate or contain the drug
prices paid under the new program."

· In an editorial on November 13, The Washington Post criticizes the
Medicare bill for the inclusion of a measure to create "health savings
accounts."  The way the measure is worded, The Post says, the accounts will
be "attractive only to those in good health and those with spare cash to
stash away" - effectively making "what was already a dubious proposition
even worse."  The ultimate consequence of this is likely to be "removing a
small pool of what will be relatively wealthy and healthy people from the
employer-based insurance groups," which "will serve only to increase the
price of health insurance for everyone else."

· Most damning of all, perhaps, is the November 14 analysis by New York
Times economics columnist Paul Krugman.  Calling the bill a "Trojan Horse,"
Krugman says that the proposed legislation limits Medicare's use of general
revenue, which would force the program into financial crisis.  The
legislation also limits the possible responses when the crisis develops,
allowing only an increase in payroll taxes or a cut in Medicare benefits.
Krugman goes on to describe plans to make Medicare compete with private
insurers as seemingly "intended to undermine the whole system."  Krugman's
summary is worth quoting at length:

What's going on? Why bait and switch, of course.  Few politicians want to
be seen opposing a bill that finally provides retirees with prescription
drug coverage.  That makes a prescription drug bill a perfect vehicle for
smuggling in provisions that sound as if they have something to do with
improving Medicare, yet are actually designed to undermine it.

All in all, the Medicare Rights Center says (press release, 11/14/04),
"[t]he bill  under consideration does more harm than good."

Please fight to defeat this bill.  If you have questions or if CCHCC 
may be of assistance, feel free to call us at 217/352-6533, fax us at 
217/352-9745, or email us at cchcc at prairienet.org.

Sincerely,

Claudia Lennhoff, Executive Director
Champaign County Health Care Consumers
-- 
**************************************
Brooke Anderson
Champaign County Health Care Consumers
44 E. Main St., Suite 208
Champaign, IL 61820
Phone = (217) 352-6533, x 17
Fax = (217) 352-9745
Email = brooke at shout.net
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