'Pelosi Prescription' slashes Medicare, raises taxesBy Congressman Jim Gerlach
Supporters of the health care overhaul that Speaker Nancy Pelosi muscled through the U.S. House of Representatives argue this will be the greatest accomplishment since Social Security and Medicare.
What supporters of the $2.4 trillion scheme brush under the rug is that the health care overhaul will siphon resources from Social Security and Medicare at a time when the federal government is struggling to meet its existing entitlement program obligations.
Recent estimates show that Medicare could go bankrupt as early as 2017. Social Security benefits will exceed revenues by $29 billion this year alone, and the money could run out completely by 2037.
Those dire projections come just as approximately 78 million Baby Boomers are about to flood the Social Security and Medicare systems.
The Pelosi Prescription will only make matters worse by raiding Social Security and Medicare.
Specifically, the federal government is going to have to intercept $398 billion from Medicare Part A and $53 billion from new Social Security taxes in the coming years to pay for the new health care entitlement program.
What this Pelosi Prescription amounts to is buying a vacation home when you are already behind on your mortgage and car payments.
In addition, the Pelosi Prescription takes a hatchet to the popular Medicare Advantage program. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Web site says Medicare Advantage clients enjoy "extra benefits and lower copayments than in the original Medicare."
Some of those extra benefits include dental and vision coverage not included in traditional Medicare programs.
In the 6th Congressional District, more than 27,000 seniors use Medicare Advantage to pay for doctor visits and other services.
There are 687,469 Pennsylvania seniors enrolled. Under the Pelosi Prescription, funding for Medicare Advantage will be slashed by $132 billion.
The independent Medicare Payment Advisory Commission estimates that 1 in 5 seniors would no longer be able to enroll in Medicare Advantage.
Meanwhile, the Pelosi Prescription calls for higher Medicare payroll taxes and a new tax on medical products that will hit Pennsylvania's thriving biotechnology and life sciences sector particularly hard.
There are about 600 biotechnology and life sciences companies that employ approximately 20,000 workers here in Pennsylvania. In the 6th District, companies such as Fujirebio, Orthovita and Nueronetics have predicted that the new tax on medical products would force them to rethink hiring new workers and jeopardize the investment that fuels life-saving research and development.
The new law also fines individuals who do not buy or obtain government-approved insurance. To make sure that mandate is enforced, the law calls for hiring approximately 16,000 new IRS agents and employees to monitor citizens.
Can you believe it has come to that in a nation where the Founding Fathers insisted on a Bill of Rights to protect citizens from unreasonable government intrusion into their lives?
No wonder the majority of my constituents and our nation oppose the Pelosi Prescription.
It is difficult to imagine an instance when Congress' decision to slash $523.5 billion from Medicare, raise taxes by more than $400 billion in the midst of recession and hire 12,000 new IRS agents to monitor citizens would not be met with anything other than intense public outrage.
Congressman Jim Gerlach is a Republican who represents Pennsylvania's 6th Congressional District in parts of Berks, Chester, Lehigh and Montgomery counties. He lives in Chester Springs, Chester County.
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