Republicans Threaten Medicare’s Survival With Political Stumping During House Hearings

The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) today condemned several prominent Republican leaders in the House of Representatives for using congressional hearings to make the case for dangerous changes to Medicare while taking unwarranted shots at health care reforms that provide millions of Americans better access to medical coverage. During the hearings, Republicans ignored the facts presented by the Medicare Trustees in their annual report, which showed that health care reform measures enacted by the last Congress lengthened the lifespan of Medicare. NJDC President and CEO David A. Harris said:

“Some Republicans have chosen, yet again, to ignore the facts and instead pursue their dangerous political goals, including radical and destructive changes to Medicare. They will stop at nothing to turn Medicare into a voucher system that would endanger the lives of millions of seniors who depend on the program every single day.

“Republican members of Congress who continue to play these games with the American health care system also do so at their own peril. When they return home, they will fairly be faced with irate voters who continue to see rising health care costs, lower retirement savings, and their futures endangered because of these risky political schemes.”

House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Representative Wally Herger (R-CA) used his hearing to wrongly condemn the Affordable Care Act as harmful to Medicare. While Herger stated that Medicare would be insolvent five years earlier than previously thought, Medicare Trustee and witness Robert Reischauer pointed out that “the date of exhaustion is seven years later than was projected in the 2009 report, the last report prepared before the Affordable Care Act was enacted,” and that Medicare would have actually been insolvent eight years sooner without the Affordable Care Act.

Representative Tom Price (R-GA) used his questioning time to attempt to lead Reischauer into making factually inaccurate statements about Medicare’s future. When Price asked Reischauer if a private sector solution would be successful, Reischauer responded that it would be “possible, but not probable.” Price then proceeded to state his disagreement with Reischauer, an expert on the subject, and as a show of his flagrant disrespect, tried to push Reischauer into agreeing with the statement that “Medicare as we know it is already gone.”

During the House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing, both Chairman Representative Fred Upton (R-MI) and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman Representative Cliff Stearns (R-FL) threw jabs at Medicare’s Second Payer system, which allows seniors to use their insurance to help pay the cost of health care. Both attacked the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS), making statements that implied that CMS was not protecting beneficiaries and was subject to fraud.

Perhaps most importantly, the Republicans participating in the hearings were steadfast in their support for the congressional Republican plan to make deep cuts to Medicare. Moreover, Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI)—the architect of the congressional Republican budget—is a member of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, and used the hearing to promote his plan.

Today’s display of blatant disregard for the facts about Medicare is further proof that the Republican Party is more interested in playing risky political games as part of an ideologically-driven radical agenda than protecting the lives of American citizens. Their shameful performance places them squarely in opposition to most American Jews,  who value Medicare’s survival as a public institution and believe that it is essential to preserve the health and dignity of today’s and tomorrow’s seniors.