Ted Deutch: “Tomorrow, my Republican colleagues will bring a 2012 budget to the floor of the House, a budget that rolls back…”

“Tomorrow, my Republican colleagues will bring a 2012 budget to the floor of the House, a budget that rolls back generations of progress and, quite simply, ends Medicare as we know it. Fifty years ago, before Medicare and Medicaid were signed into law, Americans preparing to retire faced tremendous uncertainty. Private health insurance was simply out of reach. Savings put away during years of employment could barely cover those bills, if they could cover them at all. Seniors were forced to rely on their own children, many of whom were struggling to raise families of their own, to pay for medical care. When the financial support of family and relatives was not an option, elderly Americans found themselves with the choice of a life without the care of doctors or a life of destitution. This was the status quo before Medicare and Medicaid were signed into law, and the American people found it unacceptable. We believed then, as we believe now, that we have a responsibility to ensure that seniors, children, and the permanently disabled, the most vulnerable in our society, have access to quality health care. It was this sense of shared responsibility that Congress codified in 1965 through the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. As President Lyndon B. Johnson said as he signed this historic legislation, ``No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine.…”