FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Tuesday, December 4, 2007
CONTACT: Yoni Cohen, Stark (202) 225-3202

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Pete Stark (D-CA), Chairman of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, today responded to President Bush’s threat, delivered through a letter from Health and Human Services Administrator Michael Leavitt, to veto Congressional legislation that would protect Medicare from privatization by reducing overpayments to so-called “Medicare Advantage” plans and preserve beneficiaries’ access to their doctors by preventing cuts to physician payments.

“President Bush’s veto threat confirms that he desperately wants to privatize Medicare,” said Stark. “It also demonstrates that he is more interested in promoting his radical ideology than in speaking the truth. Bush continues to suggest that limiting or eliminating overpayments to private plans will reduce benefits, even though he knows they are legally obligated to provide no less than Medicare’s benefits. He continues to support a funding warning that his administraton’s own actuary has admitted is arbitrary, even though he knows that Medicare is solvent and sustainable for the future. And he suddenly promotes linking physician payments to the adoption of health information technology, even as he opposes the interoperability standards and privacy protections that are prerequisites for a well-functioning and national health information technology system.”