Conservative Hypocrisy: “Protecting” Medicare

By Monica Sanchez

Created 08/25/2009 - 10:26am

Seniors are the only group in our society that has a guarantee of good health coverage and they certainly appreciate it. They love their government-run health care program [1], even if they don’t always realize Medicare is a government program [2].

Ironically, Conservatives are using older Americans’ love of their government-run health insurance plan to fight health care reform that would give others the right to choose a similar program for themselves. The Republican National Committee (RNC) has put out a “Seniors’ Health Care Bill of Rights” [3] in an attempt to pit that powerful demographic against reform with fears that it will affect their Medicare benefits.

But it doesn’t. AARP, which represents millions of older Americans, put out a statement in response titled “AARP Glad to Have GOP on the Side of Older Americans,” [4] which affirms:

“AARP agrees with Chairman Michael Steele’s goals for reforming our health care system, and we are pleased nothing in the bills that have been proposed would bring about the scenarios the RNC is concerned about.”