Senate Rejects Amendment To Restore Medicare Cuts
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| Amanda Tetlak |
| 12/4/2009 |
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| Lawmakers are back from Thanksgiving break, and have started a long journey of health care debate. We told you Thursday night that the Senate rejected an amendment introduced by Senator John McCain that would restore cuts to the Medicare program within health care legislation. The 400 billion dollars in cuts are primarily to the Medicare Advantage program, something the AARP says only affects about 7 percent of North Dakota seniors. Had the senate endorsed Senator McCain`s amendment, the bill would have been sent back to the Senate Finance Committee for a redo. The AARP says that could have been more detrimental to seniors. "As much effort and blood sweat and tear that has gone into it, we don`t want to see the process derailed at this point. We want to see the Senate act and then we`d like to see the two houses come together in conference committee," says Janis Cheney with the AARP of North Dakota Republicans say the cuts to health insurance plans and medical providers would mean seniors in the popular Medicare Advantage program will lose some benefits. "CBO director Doug Elmendorf, he said these massive cuts to Medicare which include slashing Medicare Advantage to the tune of 120 billion dollars, could reduce the access of care, and quality of care," says Leroy Coleman with the Republican National Committee. Democrats say no guaranteed benefits will be lost and the AARP says it`s an appropriate cut to the Medicare program that will make the system more efficient, especially with waste and fraud measures helping to pay for the legislation. The AARP says it`s confident members will be guaranteed the benefits they rely on. "A second amendment passed by Senator Bennett from Colorado that specifically says that cuts to Medicare will not affect the guaranteed benefits that some people rely on. So at the same time that the McCain amendment was rejected, that amendment was adopted," says Cheney. But citing polls of Medicare beneficiaries, Republicans still say with their vote, lawmakers didn`t follow the will of America`s seniors. The AARP says a national poll of its members showed seniors backed health care reform for protecting benefits, working to close the donut hole in prescription drug coverage, and ending the practice of coverage denials based on pre-existing conditions. |
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