HOUSE ready to vote on 692-Page Medicare Rx
plan: Sens. Clinton, Boxer and Kennedy attempt to expand Senate
version
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1. House vote on Rx drug plan could take
place tonight – less than 24 hours after published.
2. Tell Members to READ THE BILL before
they vote.
3. Senators try to expand
entitlements.
4. Sen. Clinton wants government to
decide what drugs will be
allowed.
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1-2 The House of Representatives may vote as
early as tonight on H.R. 1, the 692-page Medicare reform bill that includes the
prescription drug plan. We’ve
posted a message below from Sue Blevins from the Institute for Health Freedom
poses all of the right questions.
We suggest you call you call your Representatives and try to pin them
down on details. Let them know you
are paying attention.
3. On the other side of Congress, Democrats
are already trying to expand this $400 billion (that’s right, with a B) plan –
the largest new entitlement since Medicare was passed in
1965.
Sen. Kennedy is calling this $400
pittance a “down payment” in his campaign for socialized government medicine.
Sen. Boxer of California and other Senators have introduced
amendments that would expand the low-income coverage, start the program 2 years
earlier, and eliminate any “donut” gap of out-of-pocket payments. The price tab for these little
tweaks? More than $100
BILLION! The amendments were easily
defeated in committee, but you know they’ll be howling around election time
about how the Republicans kept Granny eating dog food so she could buy her
pills.
4. And of course, we cannot forget
Sen. Clinton. Her stalled amendment
would create a government program to assess whether or not a drug is
“cost-effective” – in government terms – and should be allowed under the
program. That means the bureaucrats
will be deciding what drugs are appropriate for you.
Does it sound familiar? I pulled one of the secret Health Care
Task Force documents that we recovered from her 1993 plan, and sure enough, the
language in that briefing paper on Prescription Drug Coverage is almost
identical to the new amendment.
The single payer folks are energizer bunnies --- they just keep going and
going and going.
Association of American
Physicians & Surgeons
1601 N. Tucson Blvd.
Suite 9
Tucson,
AZ 85716
(800)
635-1196
www.aapsonline.org
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For Immediate Release:
June 26,
2003
692-Page
Medicare Bill Just Developed and Congress Has Just Hours Before Voting: Will
Your Congressman’s Vote Be Truly Informed?
(Washington,
D.C.)--Congress is getting
ready to vote on a 692-page Medicare bill (H.R.1) that was posted online less
than 24 hours ago. “But few members are going to know what they are voting for
or against,” says Sue Blevins, president of the Institute for Health Freedom.
She urges citizens to urgently ask their national policymakers:
* Have
you (elected officials) read the newly developed 692-page Medicare bill in its
entirety?
* Will you (elected officials) study the 692-page Medicare
bill before voting on it?
* How will the bill ensure the new
prescription drug benefit will be truly voluntary, as is being touted?
*
Does the bill increase the eligibility age at which workers may recoup their
Medicare benefits (thus equating a tax increase)?
* What is the final
price tag for the pending Medicare bill?
* How much will the Medicare
bill cost future taxpayers as a percentage of their earnings?
“Without
asking these questions, Congress is making uninformed national policy decisions
that affect our very personal lives,” Blevins said. “That’s why it’s critical
for citizens to voice their own opinions on this very important issue.”
The 692-page Medicare bill can be accessed online at: http://www.house.gov/rules/HR1_002.PDF
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For information about the Institute for Health Freedom (IHF) and Medicare
reform, visit IHF’s Web site at http://www.forhealthfreedom.org/
