As Medicare begins open enrollment, seniors will start to choose their Medicare plans–but all voters will get to choose the future of Medicare this November.
On the occasion of the start of Medicare open enrollment this week, Health Access joined other senior, health, and consumer groups in leafleting on Monday, October 15th, to educate Sacramento-area residents about the voting records of their Congressional Representatives on Medicare and related health issues. Voters should know if their representative voted to replace Medicare with a voucher program, or to change Medicaid into a block grant program, shifting costs to seniors and the state budget.
On Monday, the groups leafletted in areas around the Sacramento area, including the K Street Mall, the Hart Senior Center, the Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, and the Rancho Cordova Senior Center.
Despite the falsehoods and distortion on television commercials that are blanketing the Sacramento area, the Affordable Care Act did not make cuts to benefits or choices in Medicare, as seniors will be reminded as they look through their open enrollment options. What Obamacare did was extend the life of Medicare, and increase benefits such as free preventative care and an increased prescription drug benefit.
Voters should know how their representatives voted on these improvements in Medicare–or if, like Rep. Dan Lungren, they voted to repeal the additional prescription drug coverage.
In the last Congress, Rep. Dan Lungren voted in favor of:
- proposals to turn Medicare into a voucher program;
- proposals to cut Medicaid and turn it into a block grant programs, shifting the costs to states; and
- proposals to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and with it the increased prescription drug coverage it includes
Rep. Doris Matsui, in a neighboring Sacramento district, opposed these proposals.
We’ll continue to keep our legislators accountable, in this and other districts, to their health care voting record.