Frank Pallone: “Medicare provides quality health care benefits for over 32 million senior citizens, but the Republican leadership wants…”

“Medicare provides quality health care benefits for over 32 million senior citizens, but the Republican leadership wants to transform Medicare into a program of substandard care. The Republican leadership says that Medicare is in crisis--that it is now running at a deficit. I would argue that minor adjustments, not a major overhaul, could ensure Medicare's solvency. When Democrats were in the majority, we made sure that Medicare was being adequately funded. In 1982, the Medicare trustees predicted that the Medicare trust fund would run out of money by 1986. Obviously that did not happen. Democrats protected Medicare and maintained a level of quality care for senior citizens into the 1990's. Now the Republicans are scaring seniors by saying that Medicare is again going to go bankrupt in the early part of the next decade and using the words like ``reform'' to disguise their efforts to destroy the Medicare Program. Senior citizens are not in danger of not receiving health care, but Speaker Gingrich still claims that a major overhaul is necessary. His real motives lie in an earlier speech he gave during last year's Medicare debate, where the Speaker said he wanted to see Medicare wither on a vine. Only minor adjustments need to be made to ensure Medicare solvency. When Democrats were in the majority, Medicare never ran deficits.”