Alexandria, Virginia — 60 Plus Association Chairman Jim Martin testified this morning before the GOP Doctors Caucus to help shine the light on the healthcare bills.60 Plus has been actively engaged in the healthcare debate opposing any legislation which cuts Medicare.Highlights of Mr. Martin’s testimony include:

“Let me be clear in stating, 60 Plus believes in healthcare reform, but our position is for incremental change, not taking a wrecking ball to a system serving so many so well. “First do no harm” is our mantra. Which is why we oppose any healthcare reform bill which cuts Medicare.

… Many seniors, including yours truly, were offended by President Obama’s offer of a one-time $250 check in lieu of a COLA. If the president wants to assuage seniors, then he and the Democrats in Congress should back away from the half a trillion dollar cuts to Medicare….”

... Now some seniors groups like AARP have endorsed healthcare reform, specifically the Senate plan. And this makes cents for the AARP — as in dollars and cents. The AARP makes million of dollars every year in royalties from selling insurance. They have a vested interest in this reform, but that interest is in their bottom line, not in the best interests of the seniors they supposedly represent…

…The 5.5 million supporters of the 60 Plus association are angry. They’re angry with the House of Representatives for passing a bill that would cut half a trillion dollars from the Medicare programs that are so important to their lives, essentially handing older Americans the bill for a poorly thought-out healthcare reform scheme.”

Jim Martin’s full testimony can be found below. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

 

My name is Jim Martin and I’m Chairman of the 60 Plus Association, an organization I formed in 1992 as a conservative counter to the liberal AARP.

 

60 Plus has over 5.5 million supporters, or citizen activists as we call them, across the country. All of whom support the conservative ideas of less taxes and less government.

 

Since its inception, 60 Plus has been working with our citizen activists to: permanently repeal the death tax; save Social Security from bankruptcy; continue the fight for affordable prescription drugs; lower the cost of energy; and now, oppose any healthcare plan that cuts Medicare.

 

Let me be clear in stating, 60 Plus believes in healthcare reform, but our position is for incremental change, not taking a wrecking ball to a system serving so many so well. “First do no harm” is our mantra. Which is why we oppose any healthcare reform bill which cuts Medicare.

 

Seniors represent our greatest generation. It may be cliché, but it happens to be true. Today’s seniors survived the Great Depression, landed at Normandy, reared the Baby Boom generation and helped lay the foundation for that has made America truly great.

 

Yet bureaucrats in Washington are asking seniors to sacrifice more. First there was no Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for Social Security benefits, there is continued talk of raising the retirement age and reinstituting the death tax, and now Congress is proposing massive cuts to Medicare.

 

Many seniors, including yours truly, were offended by President Obama’s offer of a one-time $250 check in lieu of a COLA. If the president wants to assuage seniors, then he and the Democrats in Congress should back away from the half a trillion dollar cuts to Medicare.

 

Seniors have been paying into Social Security and Medicare for decades. It’s unfair to now change the rules and ask them to unfairly pick up more of the tab.

 

The House and Senate bills each create hundreds of new entitlements, but cut only one, Medicare.

 

Bureaucrats may be able to haggle over the amount of those cuts; this expert says $500 billion; this one $400 billion; that one $250 billion. But cutting Medicare at all is unfair.

 

The Chief Actuary for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services prepared a study and the conclusion was the House bill would in fact REDUCE care for seniors by compromising access to service. This is unacceptable.

 

Seniors need to have ready access to their doctor, we don’t need to make that harder or increase the out-of-pocket costs for fixed income seniors.

 

This reform bill would set us on the road to a system in which bureaucrats make medical decisions instead of doctors and patients. The healthcare norm would become a government run disaster with waiting lines for office visits and procedures, and seniors would have to beg civil service boards for innovative treatments or life saving medicine.

 

The government promised there would be more than enough H1N1 vaccine for everyone, but guess what? There wasn’t — until the threat was already gone.The government took over the banks and the car companies and the mortgage companies and promised things would turn around, and guess what? After hitting a 25 year high, unemployment remains in double digits.

 

Now some seniors groups like AARP have endorsed healthcare reform, specifically the Senate plan. And this makes cents for the AARP — as in dollars and cents. The AARP makes million of dollars every year in royalties from selling insurance. They have a vested interest in this reform, but that interest is in their bottom line, not in the best interests of the seniors they supposedly represent.

 

The 5.5 million supporters of the 60 Plus Association are angry. They’re angry with the House of Representatives for passing a bill that would cut half a trillion dollars from the Medicare programs that are so important to their lives, essentially handing older Americans the bill for a poorly thought-out healthcare reform scheme.

 

Seniors have seen a lot of the government overpromising and failing to deliver. Seniors are on the march, and I’ve been warning since town hall meetings in August that a senior citizen tsunami is headed toward Capitol Hill. That tsunami came ashore the other night in Massachusetts. Unless it subsides, many politicians will be looking for a new line of work in November.

 

If the Members of Congress who supported this outrage think their votes are going to go unnoticed, they have sadly underestimated the seniors they were supposedly representing.

 

Thank you.

 

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