Dems, liberal groups target Cravaack, Bachmann on Medicare changes

The Republican budget proposal that passed the House on Friday would significantly change the way Medicare operates, and those House members who voted for it are taking heat from Democrats and liberal groups. In Duluth, a billboard urges Cravaack not to privatize Medicare, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) says that Bachmann voted to “end Medicare.” But are these claims accurate? 

“Representative Michele Bachmann voted to end Medicare and raise health care costs for Minnesota seniors,” said Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in a statement Friday afternoon. “While Representative Michele Bachmann wouldn’t touch taxpayer subsidies for Big Oil companies and tax breaks for the ultra rich, he sold out Minnesota seniors by ending Medicare and leaving them with the bill.”

The Republican budget wouldn’t “end Medicare,” but would instead give seniors vouchers to use to purchase health care insurance on the private market. The plan wouldn’t affect people currently over the age of 65, but would instead phase in the privatization.

According to Joe Baker, President of the Medicare Rights Center, the plan would end Medicare as it currently operates and would end up costing a lot more for seniors.

He told CNN:

There are two primary problems for consumers with a voucher scheme. First, it shifts far higher out of pocket costs onto consumers.

Second, while the voucher is supposed to increase in value each year, in almost all proposals it will not match the rate at which health costs increase, so the voucher over time will become increasingly more inadequate to buy coverage comparable to Medicare, meaning many will be severely underinsured.

The DCCC attack on Bachmann is a bit misleading because Medicare would continue under the Republican budget proposal, but it would be radically different.

The DCCC seems to be taking a move out of the Republicans’ 2010 campaign playbook when Republicans claimed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) cut $500 billion from Medicare. Rep. Erik Paulsen, who voted for Friday’s Republican budget proposal, targeted his opponent with that assertion in television ads last fall.

Of his DFL opponent Jim Meffert, Paulsen said, “Meffert’s for the trillion dollar health care takeover. And a massive $500 billion cut in Medicare.”

WCCO’s Reality Check found that claim to be false. The ACA doesn’t cut Medicare, it cuts Medicare Advantage, an optional Medicare program.

Americans United for Change targeted Cravaack this month on Medicare changes through vehicles including a billboard in Duluth that features a senior citizen urging him not to “privatize my Medicare.”

“Well, today he voted to do just that when he supported Medicare vouchers in the Republican budget,” the group said in a press release on Friday.

“There is nothing courageous or responsible about the Republicans in Congress who are asking millions of seniors, the less fortunate and the disabled to make more sacrifices and the richest among us make less,” said AUC executive director Tom McMahon. “If they have their way, there would be no more guaranteed Medicare benefits for Minnesota seniors, only a guarantee of paying more and more out of pocket for less care after being left to the mercy to the private insurance industry.”