Before Medicare was created in 1965, about half of America's seniors had no health insurance. Medicare now provides almost all seniors guaranteed, affordable health care coverage - and has helped to significantly lengthen life expectancy and reduce poverty.

Medicare, like Social Security, is one of the two most important achievements of the Democratic Party over the last 70 years. In 2000, Democrats voted for a budget plan that would have protected every dollar of the Medicare surplus over the next 10 years, and transferred additional savings to Medicare, in order to significantly lengthen the life of the Medicare Trust Fund. Democrats have also spent the last six years fighting to modernize Medicare by adding a real prescription drug benefit which is affordable; meaningful - with guaranteed benefits; available to all beneficiaries - urban and rural; and provided within the Medicare program - not a privatized plan.

In contrast, Republican budgets have provided enormous tax cuts targeted to an elite few, requiring the government to borrow and spend all of the money from the Medicare trust fund over the next 10 years. Now, Republicans have enacted a Medicare prescription drug plan that is written for the insurance companies and big drug manufacturers, not seniors. Under the Republican plan, seniors still face high drug prices, and the premiums increase if they wait to enroll. This plan needs to be repealed and replaced with a one that provides all seniors with an affordable, guaranteed drug benefit and makes drug costs more affordable for everyone.