Senate Republicans Change Their Tune Again, Now Medicare Is Bad and Unsound

[TomCADem]

Someone call Michael Steele! What happened to Republicans as the defenders of Medicare!

http://www.stjoenews.net/news/2009/dec/10/brownback-slow-down-health-care/

Slow down. Back up. Go incremental.

That remains the advice of Sen. Sam Brownback as lawmakers in Washington continue to craft health-care reform legislation. He believes the process is proceeding at too fast a pace and covering too much territory.

Moreover, the Kansas Republican fears the proposed expansion of Medicare, moving the age of eligibility back to 55, will bankrupt an already shaky federal program.

"Nobody knows the cost of the overall program," he said Thursday morning in a conference call with reporters. "Medicare is not currently actuarially sound. ... I fail to see the expansion of Medicare as anything that's going to make that program any more fiscally solvent."

He said the program has generated strong opposition from the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association.

"What they get in Medicare is less than what they get from private insurers," Mr. Brownback said, "and they believe that this will take people from private insurance and put them in Medicare and hurt their reimbursement rates."

The senator said the plan will be bad for Medicare, bad for the economy and a huge expense for all taxpayers. He also lamented the lack of discussion with senators of his minority party.