BY ALINE REYNOLDS | If the Republicans’ version of the 2012 federal budget were to pass Congress, Medicare in its current form would no longer exist, according to Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who stopped by the Whittaker Senior Center on Fri., June 10 to apprise Lower East Side seniors of the proposed changes.
Maloney is fiercely advocating for the conservation of Medicare, currently guaranteed to Americans 65 and older. The G.O.P. budget, which the House of Representatives passed in April and the Senate voted down in May, would eliminate this guarantee and establish a voucher system that would require future seniors to purchase their own health insurance from the private market.
“I wanted to drop by today to let you know what I and my colleagues in the New York Congressional delegation are doing to preserve Medicare and fight attempts in Congress to end the program as we know it,” Maloney told the seniors during their lunch break. “Simply put, we will never let that happen. [Medicare] is a huge part of the bedrock agreement America has with its citizens — if you work hard and play by the rules, our nation will help make sure you are taken care of in your retirement.”
The Republican plan would raise many seniors’ out-of-pocket health care expenses by more than twice the current amount by 2022, translating to an approximately $6,500 hike in annual fees per senior in New York. By 2030, seniors would be paying some 68 percent of their health care costs, and receiving only one-third of the costs in federal subsidies. The reform would terminate preventive health care benefits, costing the elderly upwards of $110 million in 2012. In Maloney’s Eastern Manhattan district alone, this would affect 88,000 seniors, many of whom reside in naturally occuring retiring communities on Grand Street and East Broadway.
“The G.O.P. plan also gives enormous flexibility to the private insurance companies — meaning the G.O.P. plan no longer guarantees seniors the same level of benefits and choice of doctors that they have today under Medicare,” said Maloney.
Finally, the plan would increase the age when seniors become eligible for the new subsidies program from 65 to 67 starting in 2022, and reopen the prescription drug donut hole, costing individuals a total of $2.2 billion in 2012 and up to $44 billion by 2020. Some 11,000 seniors in Maloney’s district would be affected by this change.
“Let’s be clear. We need to balance the budget, to deal with the debt caused by two wars that the Bush administration did not pay for, but not on the backs of our seniors, which is what the Republican plan would do,” said Maloney.
Several seniors at the Whittaker Senior Center voiced their concerns about the proposals.
“I’m hoping that they don’t cut [Medicare] out. It would be terrible. My daughter wouldn’t be able to afford her medical bills,” said Seward Park Cooperative resident Frances Turek, who is financially supporting her sick, unemployed daughter. “It’s imperative that she have the federal aid. She doesn’t have any coverage other than that.”
Seward Park Cooperative resident Arthur Friedland is worried about the future of his nephew, whose physical disabilities have left him unemployed for nearly three years.
“It’s very important [that Medicare continue]… because a fellow like this is going to wind up in the gutter,” said Friedland. “There’s nobody out there to really help them.”
“I don’t think it’s fair” for lawful, tax-paying seniors to be denied the benefits they deserve, said another senior, Sarah, who declined to provide her last name. “Is this going to go on every year, this problem, or is this finally going to be taken care of?” she asked Maloney.
The Congresswoman said she and her fellow Democratic congressional delegates are doing everything they could to preserve the current status of Medicare by negotiating spending cuts in other budget categories.
