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Letter to Congress Opposing the House Budget Resolution for FY 2012
(a copy of this letter was also sent to the House of Representatives)
April 12, 2011
United States Senate
Washington , DC 20510
Dear Senator:
On behalf of the millions of members and supporters of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, I urge you to oppose the House Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Resolution when it comes to the House Floor this week . This Budget , i ntroduced by Rep. Paul Ryan, would be devastating to today's seniors and future retirees due to the proposed changes it makes to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs.
The House budget plan privatizes Medicare and achieves savings by shifting costs to Medicare beneficiaries. Future beneficiaries would lose Medicare's guaranteed benefits and would be given vouchers to purchase private health insurance. The amount of the voucher would grow less rapidly than health care costs meaning seniors would end up paying much more for their health care under the voucher plan than under the current Medicare program. Seniors are already paying on average nearly 30 percent of the Social Security benefits for Medicare Part B and D cost sharing. With half of Medicare beneficiaries living in households with incomes below $20,000, they cannot afford to pay more for health care.
Further concerns are that benefits and premiums could vary from one private plan to another, and it is unclear whether or not private plans would choose to participate in the Medicare voucher program. In the past private insurers did not want to enroll older people - or would ration care if they did participate in order to increase their profit margins. Finally, it is questionable how much this proposal would save due to private health insurance plans' higher administrative costs compared with Medicare.
The House budget plan includes dramatic reductions to Medicaid funding that would affect low-income seniors. Older adults and people with disabilities account for two-thirds of all Medicaid spending, and Medicaid pays for about 62 percent of all long-term services and supports. The proposed changes to Medicaid - turning it into a block grant program to the states - would affect older Americans by jeopardizing the availability and quality of long-term care both in nursing homes and in the community, and impairing low-income seniors' ability to receive assistance through the Medicare Savings Programs to help pay their Medicare out-of-pocket costs.
The House budget plan includes a new trigger mechanism for Social Security that would force the development of proposals to cut Social Security benefits and then expedite them through the Congress using "fast track" legislative procedures. Using fast track procedures for Social Security is unprecedented; rather, procedural provisions in past budget resolutions protected Social Security by assuring that any changes made to the program would be supported by broad, bipartisan majorities. We are also concerned that although the House budget plan does not propose direct reductions in benefits for Social Security beneficiaries, House Budget Committee Chairman Ryan has made clear his expectation that only benefit cuts should be considered under his proposal, stating that raising taxes would cause "...profound economic damage." The fast track proposals included in this budget lay the ground work for these benefit cuts by streamlining the process employed by the Congress for enacting Social Security legislation.
The National Committee urges you to oppose the House Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Resolution, which would be extremely harmful to older Americans today and in the future. We look forward to working with you on proposals to strengthen Medicare and Medicaid that do not shift burdensome health care costs to beneficiaries, as well as proposals to provide adequate funding to programs of importance to older Americans.
Sincerely,
Barbara B. Kennelly
President & CEO