To: President Donald Trump
President Obama: Save original Medicare!
We, the undersigned, recognize that original Medicare has been a model health care system providing affordable, comprehensive and universal coverage for the elderly of our nation for nearly fifty years. We also recognize that the greed of the private insurance industry drives that industry to capture as much of the Medicare "pie" as they can get. We recognize that privatized Medicare, Medicare Advantage, costs much more while producing no better outcomes. We ask you, our President, to allow no further privatization of Medicare and to be fiscally responsible by returning to the 2.2% cut scheduled for the funding for Medicare Advantage this year.
Why is this important?
Medicare Advantage, the Bush-era privatized portion of Medicare, originally cost 14% more than original Medicare, yet it produced no better outcomes. The original intent of Obamacare was to get the sticky hands of private insurance off of Medicare once more, and the Medicare advantage program funding was originally supposed to be cut by 2.2% Following a media blitz and a lot of corporate money, Medicare Advantage is now scheduled for a 3.3% increase in funding this year instead of a cut. Adding insult to injury, the insurance industry is asking for increases in deductibles on original Medicare and a tax on Medigap plans, forcing more people into Medicare advantage. We may lose Medicare by bits and pieces if we don't stop the insurance industry now!