Statement By 60 Plus Association President Jim Martin

Page 3 of the March 23rd edition of The Hill titled “House Dems launch spring offensive on Medicare law” is listed under the banner of “News.” I humbly disagree: the banner should have read “Old News” at best, “Demagoguery” more precisely.

I worked on Capitol Hill as Chief of Staff to Edward Gurney of Florida when Medicare first passed. I note with pride that my boss voted for LBJ’s Medicare legislation — and Gurney was a Republican! The demagoguery of Medicare is old hat and the current crop of Dems’ suggesting “…Republican’s true intentions to undermine Medicare” is as full of baloney today as it ever has been. Seniors’ I represent know better and are tired of this.

Take the newest target-du-jour for ridicule, the so-called Medicare drug coverage “doughnut hole.” The Dems’ have hired none other than Walter Cronkite to heap a liberal dose of nasty upon what I will agree needs further address. There should not be a hole in this doughnut. But before this new legislation, I would remind my Democratic colleagues there wasn’t even a doughnut! So we at 60 Plus say let’s work together in a broad, bi-partisan manner to make the bill — over time — even more responsive to seniors’ needs.

In point of fact, I’m most enamored with the new Medicare reforms for the cost controls inherent. The President in a recent speech cited how Medicare would pay the extended hospital stays for ulcer surgery — on average, a $28,000 tab. Yet Medicare would not pay for the drugs that eliminate the cause of most ulcers — on average, only $500. And there are other examples: costs well in excess of $100,000 for surgery and post-operative care for heart patients paid for by Medicare — but the blood thinning drugs that could help prevent heart ailments in the first place, not paid for. Now I ask you, what sense does that make? None. That is why this new-look Medicare is a huge step forward. The President was correct when he said medicine had changed, Medicare hadn’t.

It boggles the mind that this sort of marketplace reform can be demonized. On behalf of senior citizens, I call on House Democrats to stop this nonsense!

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