Saving Medicare and Social Security for Ohio’s seniors
The Clermont Sun – Charlotte is a nurse from Southwest Ohio who also advocates for seniors. Like other Ohio seniors, she has paid into Medicare and Social Security all her working life. And, like many Ohio seniors, Charlotte recently wrote to me that she “value[s] traditional Medicare and doesn’t want to let it whither on a vine.”
Yet the big insurance companies – and their allies in Washington – want to strip Medicare to help fund extra tax cuts to millionaires.
The House of Representatives just passed a budget that would give tax breaks to millionaires and oil companies while ending Medicare as we know it. The bill would fundamentally change the way older Americans pay for health care and jeopardize the stability of long-term care funding.
The House-passed budget would turn Medicare into a voucher system, which means that seniors would get a fixed amount no matter how high or how quickly health costs climb. Not only would the House proposal strip away Medicare’s guaranteed benefits, it would require seniors to pay thousands of dollars in additional out-of-pocket healthcare expenses each year. If seniors wanted to keep their traditional Medicare, they would be forced to pay more.
