Barrack obama’s plan and Medicare

A few key points on President Barrack obama’s plan and Medicare:

• President Obama is committed to protecting and strengthening Medicare for America’s seniors - Medicare beneficiaries will not experience any cuts in benefits as a solution of reform.

• His plan does not use a penny of the Medicare trust fund to pay for reform; instead, it eliminates waste, fraud and abuse to make stronger the financial health of the program.

• The President has planned to eliminate waste from the Medicare Advantage program to strengthen the financial health of the overall program

• Medicare Advantage is one of the parts of Medicare program that allows beneficiaries to receive services through private insurance plans.

• At present, private insurance companies that participate in Medicare Advantage receive significant subsidies from the government. Medicare pays those private plans 14 percent more on regular than they pay traditional Medicare - but doesn’t result in any better care for seniors.

• Putting an end to these overpayments will strengthen the Medicare program; expand its solvency and lower costs for all beneficiaries.

• The scare strategy on Medicare is just the latest in a series of politically motivated attacks by some Republicans to stall and kill reform.

• Republicans has never championed Medicare - they have been waging a war against the program for years. In fact, as recently as last April, 80 percent of House Republicans voted to “end Medicare as we know it” by turning it into a voucher program that would have provided seniors a fixed sum of money to purchase private insurance, a plan one AARP policy official called “a very dangerous idea.”