ALERT: "Privatize Medicare? NO WAY!" video available

From mlyon01@comcast.net, July 20, 2007

ALERT: "Privatize Medicare? NO WAY!" video available

"Privatize Medicare? NO WAY!" shows how the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act threatens to privatize Medicare, irreparably harming over 40 million seniors and disabled people, and driving Medicare itself into bankruptcy and oblivion. We need to solve the problems of both Medicare and the uninsured by extending Medicare to cover everyone with expanded benefits: Medicare for All, also known as Single-Payer healthcare.

More than just a drug program, the Medicare Modernization Act is a plan to drive healthier Medicare recipients out of traditional fee-for-service Medicare and into private plans like HMOs, PPOs and private FFS plans, which will profit since their patients will need little care. Traditional Medicare would be left with the sickest, most expensive patients, and would have reduced funding because of fewer patients and stringent new cost controls built into the Act.

In addition, Medicare would become politically marginalized because the Medicare Modernization Act encourages higher income seniors to leave Medicare, both by charging higher premiums if they stay, and by giving tax reductions if they leave to set up Health Savings Accounts. If Medicare becomes a program for low-income seniors, it will become politically vulnerable to further cuts.

Scrap the Medicare Modernization Act! Instead of being ditched, Medicare needs to be expanded to cover everyone. Call it Medicare-for-All, or Single-Payer Healthcare, we need equal, comprehensive, low-cost, government-financed healthcare for everyone. As market-based healthcare continues to melt down, we need to step up to make a new realty happen.

"Privatize Medicare? NO WAY" also shows examples of what the San Francisco Gray Panthers and the California Alliance for Retired Americans have done to organize against the Medicare Modernization Act and promote Single-Payer/Medicare for All.

You can see "Privatize Medicare? NO WAY" by streaming video at [click here].

You can also request a free DVD or Microsoft PowerPoint version suitable for group presentation with television or computer/projector by e-mailing mlyon01@comcast.net . (The DVD and PowerPoint presentation is full-screen and has far better resolution than the streaming version.)

We are also available to make presentation to your group in the San Francisco Bay Area.