The Honorable Greg Walden, Chairman
Energy and Commerce Committee
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Frank Pallone, Ranking Member

Energy and Commerce Committee
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairman Walden and Ranking Member Pallone:

On behalf of the millions of members and supporters of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, I am writing to express our support for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which is providing health coverage for millions of children in working families.  Since the 1997 passage of CHIP, which has always received bipartisan support, the number of uninsured children has been reduced by 50 percent.

We support your efforts to extend funding for the CHIP program through passage of H. R. 3921, the “Helping Ensure Access for Little Ones, Toddlers, and Hopeful Youth by Keeping Insurance Delivery Stable (HEALTHY KIDS) Act of 2017.”  However, we are adamantly opposed to Section 203 of the HEALTHY KIDS Act which would offset part of the cost of extending health insurance for children by requiring some older Medicare beneficiaries to pay 100 percent of the cost of their Medicare Part B premium.

We oppose income-related premiums in general and further increasing them as a pay-for to extend the CHIP program in particular because:

  • Wealthy individuals, who have paid more into Medicare during their working years, already pay higher premiums, and an additional increase included in the “Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization (MACRA) of 2015” (P.L. 114-10) takes effect in 2018.  Additional means testing ultimately raises costs for middle- and lower-income seniors who depend on Medicare.
  • Means testing undermines the social insurance nature of Medicare.  If means testing results in Medicare becoming increasingly unfair to higher-income beneficiaries, who tend to be younger and healthier, they could opt out which would not only increase overall costs but also reduce public support for Medicare itself.
  • Any savings from the Medicare program should be used to pay for improvements to Medicare.

The National Committee urges you and your colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee to work together to ensure the passage of the CHIP reauthorization legislation without taking resources from the Medicare program.

Sincerely

President and CEO