Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative Charles W. Boustany, Jr., (R-Southwest Louisiana), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, today repudiated a new advertising campaign by the Obama Administration to promote the President’s massive, new health care law.  The campaign will feature actor Andy Griffith, but it fails to mention the cuts to Medicare in the new law.

“Medicare remains a critical safety net for seniors throughout Louisiana, but Washington Democrats decided to raid Medicare by $500 billion to pay for the new health care law rather than focusing on lower costs,” Boustany said.  “More and more information continues to come to light about President Obama’s new health law and how the cuts will affect access to care of America’s seniors.  Even an ad campaign with Andy Griffith cannot sugarcoat the Medicare cuts in President Obama’s massive new law.  This year, Medicare took in less than it paid out, and without responsible reforms, Medicare will face bankruptcy.”

In April, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid’s Office of the Actuary authored this report, which outlines the costs of the new health care law passed in March over bipartisan opposition.  In addition to the $500 billion cut, the Actuary reports half of seniors who currently have Medicare Advantage plans will lose their coverage.  The Actuary’s report also concludes:

• uninsured and those employers who don’t offer coverage will pay $120 billion in taxes;
• national health care expenditures will increase by $311 billion;
• health care increases to 21 percent of GDP by 2019;
• 14 million people will lose their current employer-sponsored coverage;
• the government will spend $410 billion to expand Medicaid;
• and Medicaid enrollment increases by 20 million new beneficiaries.

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