Heller Votes for Republican Plan to Eliminate Medicare

Las Vegas, NV – Rep. Dean Heller today voted for the Republican budget plan that, according to the Wall St. Journal, would “essentially end Medicare.”  The plan would turn Medicare into a voucher system with enrollees using the vouchers to purchase private insurance.  

 

“The Heller/GOP budget would be a disaster for Nevada senior citizens,” said Zach Hudson, spokesperson for the Nevada State Democratic Party.  “Rather than fighting for Nevada seniors, Dean Heller is risking their health by trying to eliminate Medicare and doubling the costs of seniors’ healthcare.  Nevada needs a Senator who will fight to create jobs and protect senior citizens, not one who endangers them solely to pander to the extremists in the TEA Party.”  

 

In addition to eliminating Medicare and nearly doubling the average healthcare premium Nevada seniors pay, according to the Department of Health and Human Services the Heller/GOP budget would cost Nevada seniors almost $300 million alone in higher prescription drug costs by reopening the “donut hole”. The budget’s author Rep. Paul Ryan himself has admitted that the GOP plan would shift the cost of healthcare towards seniors.  In addition to voting for the plan, Dean Heller said he plans to campaign on it.

 

Background:

 

End Medicare. “The plan would essentially end Medicare, which now pays most of the health-care bills for 48 million elderly and disabled Americans, as a program that directly pays those bills.” [Wall Street Journal, 4/4/11]

 

Costs Would Rise. Republican Budget Chairman Paul Ryan agreed that his plan for Medicare “would be to shift more of the burden of health care costs out of their own pockets to seniors.” [Fox News Sunday, 4/3/11]