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The Campaign to Preserve – Not Privatize – Medicare
PRINCIPLES
Introduction
The Medicare program has been a success. It assures the elderly and people with disabilities access to reliable health care coverage with a defined set of benefits. Its administrative costs are much less than the administrative costs of private health insurance, and it works better than any marketplace-based model to contain costs and ensure reliable coverage with a defined set of benefits. Reforms should make the program's coverage more comprehensive and reflect a national commitment to an inclusive Medicare program, which provides coverage for rich and poor, frail and healthy, preserving one community of interests amongst all groups rather than pitting one group against another.
Core Principles for the Medicare Program
- Guaranteed Benefits: Medicare successfully provides a guaranteed and defined set of benefits at the same price for all, regardless of where a beneficiary lives, her health status, or her income. This should be continued.
- Free Choice of Physician: The traditional Medicare program guarantees beneficiaries free choice of physician, throughout the country at an affordable price. This should be continued.
- Medicare Should Not Be Privatized: The current Medicare program already contains the most important competition – competition among doctors and hospitals seeking to provide the best care. It should not be replaced with a system that gives beneficiaries a voucher to buy health coverage from private insurance companies. Privatization would mean the end of Medicare’s guaranteed benefits and free choice of provider.
- Prescription Drug Benefit: Comprehensive out-patient prescription drug coverage should be included in the Medicare benefit package so that it is available to every American who relies on Medicare.
- Prescription Drug Coverage Should Not Be Privatized: Medicare beneficiaries should not be forced to join a private insurance plan to get coverage for their prescription drugs. It should be made available to beneficiaries directly through the traditional program and Medicare HMOs.
- Meeting the Needs of All: Medicare must be improved to meet the needs of people who have chronic, long-term conditions and disabilities, including the need for long-term community services and coordination of care.
Conclusion
Medicare has served the United States well, because it is equally available to all seniors, regardless of health or financial status and people with disabilities. Medicare can be improved, but reform proposals need to be carefully scrutinized and the question asked, "Will this proposal build on Medicare's strengths or will it undermine the very things that have made Medicare a successful program?"
The Campaign to Preserve – Not Privatize – Medicare
- Educates the public, the media and members of Congress about the dangers of privatizing the Medicare program and the need for alternative legislation that will strengthen the program by making it more responsive to the needs of older Americans and people with disabilities.
- Coordinates opposition to proposals that weaken Medicare and builds support for proposals that strengthen it. By:
- Meeting with Congressional staff and planning events for the press in Washington, D.C.
- Keeping activists around the country informed about the latest legislative developments in Congress, when legislation is likely to be considered and which members of Congress need further education on the issue.
- Making public education materials available to grassroots groups to make their communication with members of Congress and the local media more effective.
We invite other groups to work with the coalition in any way they are comfortable. If you are a national organization and would like to share in the coalition’s education and advocacy efforts and be listed as a coalition member, signifying that you agree with our statement of principles, please let us know. You also can affiliate with us on a more informal basis and receive written analyses and alerts notifying you when there is a need for action to support or oppose particular legislation. If you would like to join our coalition or simply receive materials, please send us your contact information to: agreener@citizen.org
The members of the coalition are: [list in formation]
Advancing Independence: Modernizing Medicare and Medicaid
AIDS Treatment Activists Coalition (ATAC)
American Friends Service Committee
American Medical Student Association
Americans for Democratic Action
Center for Disability Issues and the Health Professions
Center for Medicare Advocacy, Inc.
The Central Conference of American Rabbis
Church Women United
Communications Workers of America
Consumers Union
Families USA
General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church
Gray Panthers
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Medicare Rights Center
National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys
National Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers, Inc.
National Council of Jewish Women
National Priorities Project
National Senior Citizens Law Center
NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
Public Citizen
Union of American Hebrew Congregations
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries
Universal Health Care Action Network (UHCAN)
The Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring
more resources
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