Dear Senator:
On behalf of the AFL-CIO, I urge you to vote for the Medicare Protection Act (S. 2491) when it is considered on the floor. This bill provides safeguards against using fast track legislative procedures to slash Medicare’s guaranteed benefits when budget legislation is considered under reconciliation instructions.
As you know, the development of fast track budget reconciliation procedures resulted from years of Washington gridlock and Congress’s inability to process budget legislation through regular order. While these extraordinary procedures are now considered business as usual, we believe that Medicare eligibility and benefit decisions deserve the “special” protection of being considered under the same rules that govern how most laws are enacted.
More than half of Medicare beneficiaries depend on the program’s guaranteed benefits to maintain a modest standard of living and avoid poverty. In 2013, the median income of Medicare households was $23,500 – just under 200 percent of the federal poverty level. For these households, medical expenses consume far more of the family budget than they do for the average household, 14 percent vs. 5 percent. Medicare households with “sicker” individuals often spend far more of the household budget on health care, 20 percent on average. Medicare was designed to provide health and income security to seniors and people with disabilities – groups that are particularly threatened by high health care costs because they older and likely to have chronic conditions.
The Medicare Protection Act would subject reconciliation bill provisions that would substantially change Medicare’s benefits and eligibility requirements to “Byrd rule” challenges to exclude them from the legislation. These provisions would be deemed extraneous, and could only be included if 60 votes could be mustered in the Senate to preserve them. Proposals to reduce Medicare spending by raising the eligibility age or increasing the out-of-pocket costs of beneficiaries should be subject to thorough debate by Congress, since they would significantly diminish the health security of vulnerable Americans, and a 60-vote threshold is appropriate given the importance of the Medicare guarantee.
We hope you will support this important legislation.
Sincerely,
William Samuel, Director
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT