SEIU Local 535

home | action center

Fight the Privatization of Medicare

A filibuster in the U.S. Senate is the last hope to defend traditional Medicare against privatization. Senate Dianne Feinstein voted with Senate Republicans and a few Democrats to privatize Medicare in June. When the Joint Conference Committee compromise comes out in September, she must be persuaded to join with concerned Senators to filibuster privatization of Medicare and oppose the pathetic prescription drug insurance scam. Congress could turn Medicare over to for-profit insurers, who make money off of denying care. The phony prescription drug plan would pay less than one quarter of average annual drug costs. Help stop the fake Medicare reform!

19% of all people living with AIDS in the U.S. rely on Medicare as their primary source of health care. Presently, these individuals must rely solely on strained state AIDS drug assistance programs or embattled state Medicare programs (if their income is sufficiently low) to obtain life-saving drugs. For people with AIDS who have an average annual drug cost of approximately $13,000, the legislation offers little relief.

The federal-state Medicaid program "is now the largest payer of mental health services in the country," accounting for roughly 20% of the nation's mental health bills.

You can take action to stop these harmful changes before they become law.
1. Make a few phone calls. Call the Capitol switchboard toll-free at (877) 331-2000 and ask to be connected to your Representative and Senators' offices.
2. Send letters by mail. Below is a sample letter you can copy to a word document and mail to:
The Honorable (full name), U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510; and
The Honorable (full name), U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515
3. Ask your friends and family to do the same. Congress needs to hear from everyone who is concerned about rising prescription drug costs-before it's too late. For more information, visit www.seiu.org. or call (866) 565-1465 toll-free.

Sample Letter

Dear (Senator/Representative) _______________:
The Medicare drug plan President Bush is pushing through Congress is not the affordable prescription drug coverage America's seniors have been promised. I am writing to ask you to support a real plan to provide retirees with real relief from soaring drug prices. The current House (H.R.1) and Senate (S.1) Medicare drug bills fail to meet the needs of seniors and people with disabilities in many ways: Seniors will be expected to pay too much in out-of-pocket costs for too little coverage. Medicare beneficiaries will be at the mercy of insurance companies and HMOs, who will decide what drugs are made available and how much they will cost. An estimated 4.4 million retirees who currently have employer-provided prescription drug coverage stand to lose it. The plan does absolutely nothing to control skyrocketing drug costs, and even goes so far as to forbid Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices for seniors. The plan jeopardizes the future of Medicare by encouraging privatization of the program and by raising costs for some beneficiaries through "means-testing." Please oppose any Medicare prescription drug plan that does not solve these problems. I understand that Congress is under pressure to reconcile the House and Senate bills and send the legislation to President Bush right away, but this issue is far too important to rush. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
(Your name, address, and phone number)