On the recordApril 18, 2012
On Monday I met in western New York at the Cheektowaga Senior Center, where the discussion centered around the future of Medicare. Prior to the creation of Medicare in 1965, only 50 percent of seniors had health insurance because they were seen by insurance companies as too risky. Today, Medicare is a lifeline to affordable prescription medications and accessible preventative care for seniors across the Nation, including over 100,000 beneficiaries in my district alone. Now some want to change the program to instead give our seniors a voucher that forces them to go out into the market on their own to try to obtain insurance. Our parents and grandparents deserve better. Medicare provides one of the most important guarantees in our society: the guarantee that if you are an older American and you get sick, you will get the care that you need without going broke. This is an American promise worth fighting to protect. ____________________
