Thursday, August 2, 2007

RoadBlock Republicans Vote AGAINST Health Care for Children

Tampa Bay's Roadblock Republicans showed their true colors once again yesterday. How did they do it this time? They voted against Hr 3162 a bill
to extend and improve the children's health insurance program, to improve beneficiary protections under the Medicare, Medicaid, and the CHIP program
Here is the list of Tampa Bay's Roadblock Republicans who voted against health care for children:

  • Gus Bilirakis
  • Ginny Brown-Waite
  • Vern Buchanan
  • Adam Putnam
  • Bill Young

What is the matter with these people? Why would they vote against expanding health care for children? Here is the red herring that Ginny Browne-Waite threw out responding to a letter from Charlie Crist supporting this initiative:
"I am disappointed that your letter fails to mention that SCHIP funding should not come at the expense of Florida's seniors."
Where is Ginny Brown-Waite getting this idea? Here is what the far right Human Events Magazine reports:
cutting $157 billion from the Medicare Advantage ... This scenario could result in seniors losing their current health care provider or being subjected to increased costs and decreased services.
But what is Congress really doing? They are cutting subsidies to Medicare Advantage HMO's. These are the insurance industry darlings who pushed through the Republican controlled Congress the hare brained scheme that they should be paid more than traditional Medicare benefits for denying more services.

So these Roadblock Republicans are not really standing up for seniors. They are standing up for insurance companies instead of providing more health care for children.

Isn't it time to get rid of these people?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

And the insurance industry is already running misleading ads. The one I saw tonight was targeting Vern Buchanan.

Start getting the word out now. Write letters to the editor. Phone in radio shows.

Tell them that their insurance companies, and these insurance industry owned and operated Republicans are lying to them again.

Unknown said...

The Medicare Advantage fight is a tough one...of course the program is a rip-off for the taxpayers, but the beneficiaries love it. As I understand, it "Advantage" programs are like HMOs, the beneficiaries get prescription benefits like people in regular HMOs instead of having to wrestle with "part D" plans. This system needs to be reformed wholesale...a rational drug benefit needs to be part of reforming (or ditching) Medicare "Advantage."