|
Washington, DC -- Very concerned about a Bush Administration budget proposal that would cut $38.7 billion from Medicare over the next 10 years, U.S. Rep. Ron Klein sent a letter to the Chairman of the House Budget Committee John Spratt today, urging him to reinstate the cuts in the FY 2008 budget.
“A 38 billion dollar cut to Medicare would devastate the millions of seniors who rely on Medicare for their health insurance, including over 3 million Floridians, or approximately one in five Florida residents” said Klein. “In addition, approximately one million of those admitted to Florida hospitals last year were Medicare recipients. I understand that when our nation is in debt, we make difficult budgetary decisions. However it is unacceptable to place the burden on the backs of our seniors.”
The following is the text of the letter:
March 20, 2007
The Honorable John Spratt
Chairman
House Committee on the Budget
207 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-6065
Dear Chairman Spratt:
As you develop a Fiscal Year 2008 budget resolution, I urge you to reject the President’s proposal to cut Medicare. Specifically, I encourage you to restore $38.7 billion in cuts over ten years that come as a result of expanding the reach of income-related Medicare premiums.
While I certainly recognize that the nation faces a difficult budget situation, I strongly feel that the President’s new policy would create an unnecessary financial burden for certain groups of Medicare beneficiaries. As you know, seniors with annual incomes exceeding $80,000 under current law must pay additional income-related premiums for Medicare Part B. The triggering income thresholds for the higher premiums are indexed to inflation. The President’s budget would eliminate the indexing, resulting in an expanding population of middle-income seniors who qualify for the income thresholds every year as inflation grows.
And this group is not insignificant. In 2017, the Administration projects that 4.9 million seniors will pay higher premiums as a result of this new policy. This is compared with only 3.2 million seniors impacted in that same year under the current policy. The Administration also uses this new means-testing approach to cut other areas of Medicare. It would be applied to income-related premiums for Medicare Part D, impacting an estimated two million prescription drug beneficiaries in 2017. For these reasons, I respectfully request the House Budget Committee to oppose the President’s new policy for calculating income-related Medicare premiums and restore Medicare to its current levels.
In closing, I look forward to working with you to ensure that we adopt a budget that makes needed investments in important programs such as Medicare. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Ron Klein
Member of Congress | 
