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| A call to action on Medicare law NYSUT President Tom Hobart Summer 2004 Despite our valiant efforts to protect Medicare for workers and retirees, President Bush and congressional ideologues rammed through bogus legislation that changed the traditional Medicare system, as we know it. We must now get the word out to our members and the general public about this deeply flawed approach to providing secure health care benefits to workers and retirees. We must also continue the political fight against the trend at the White House and Congress to turn health care, as well as all domestic programs, over to the mercy of the private insurance market and drug industry profiteers. The new Medicare structure would do just this. Hundreds of thousands of NYSUT members fund the Medicare system through payroll taxes, and many of our retirees benefit from Medicare benefits. It is fitting and proper that NYSUT lead a statewide effort to educate our members and the public about the importance of rewriting this new sham law decimating Medicare benefits. The worst aspect of the Bush Medicare Law is that it does nothing to control future health insurance costs and skyrocketing medication prices charged by the greedy drug industry. The Bush Law provides a paltry new prescription drug benefit at the price of giving too much power over to HMOs, private insurance companies, and the drug industry to control all of workers’ and retirees’ health care choices. Among many problems created by enacting the Bush Medicare Law is that future collective bargaining negotiations for employees’ health benefits will be disrupted because the Bush Law makes it very difficult to determine future spending on prescription drugs. The Bush Law introduces a privatization scheme that will pressure healthy seniors to leave the system at the expense of those left to pay higher premiums. The Bush Law encourages employers to drop their retirees’ prescription drug contribution. The Bush Law caps future Medicare spending, forcing Washington to either raise payroll taxes or cut benefits to pay for increasing health costs due to retirements and inflation. The Bush Law undermines employers’ participation in providing health care by allowing a new billion-dollar tax giveaway to wealthy people so they can shelter income to pay for future health care costs. The Bush Medicare Law is a flat-out disgrace as it retrenches the hard-won battles in 1965 to establish federally secured, defined health care benefits for workers and retirees. Still, we need not be discouraged for several reasons. The Bush Medicare victory is temporary, and the battle to restore its guaranteed benefits continues! The reality is, the more people know about this fraudulent Bush Medicare Law and are able to compare it to the traditional Medicare system with its guaranteed secured benefits, the more they oppose the Bush plan. This is why we need you to stay active on this issue! On our side are strong facts: The traditional Medicare system was among the nation’s most successful health care programs. The traditional Medicare system was the fundamental health care plan for millions of workers and retirees to protect families from impoverishment due to illness or disability; it helped millions of American families. It gave workers and the elderly, in particular, the financial means to live with dignity and independence. It was financially stable for many years. We will have to work hard to restore Medicare’s secure, guaranteed benefits and restore the traditional Medicare structure with an affordable drug benefit, including catastrophic care. Our message is simple: Protecting the integrity of traditional Medicare is crucial, so that it can continue to provide 100 percent of health care benefits to our members, their families, and retirees for future generations. That’s why we put together a series of informational workshops and this online Medicare resource center. We hope that you find it helpful and use the materials to aggressively advocate for electing people to the White House and Congress who will stand up for you and all workers and retirees. We have provided as part of this packet an "Action Plan" which contains implementation ideas, such as sample media letters. We need you to take action by sharing this information to your colleagues and friends and communicating with your local leaders. Sincerely, Thomas Y. Hobart, Jr. |
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