Health & Fitness
Save Medicare for Seniors; Before 'MA Medicare-for-All'
Let's save the Medicare we have for senior citizens (age 65 and over), before unrealistically granting the financially stressed program to everyone.
Last June, in Lowell, liberal activists within the Massachusetts Democratic Party adopted a Medicare-4-All scheme (Senate Bill 509) into their party platform - effectively caving to the far Left within their ranks.
My 2012 opponent authored this Canadian-style health care plan which would drastically diminish health care quality, patient choice, the number of Massachusetts doctors practicing, and would lead to private sector layoffs, all in the weakest U.S. economy since 1929.
No matter how many voters in Vermont may like it, 'EldridgeCare' makes ObamaCare look real conservative and incremental.
Find out what's happening in Marlboroughwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Why does State Sen. Jamie Eldridge repeatedly travel outside his district to try and sell a "MA Medicare-4-All Plan" when policy makers should be doing everything they can to save the near bankrupt Medicare for Seniors, and strengthen the state's Health Connector for small businesses?
The Eldridge Bill is a Massachusetts jobs killer. It contains five new state taxes on income, capital gains, payroll, employees and employers. It pools all federal monies for MA Health Care into a single trust fund to be administered by an unelected Board with vast powers over medical decisions. Sound familiar? Also, the mandates within the newly created state bureaucracy make the stifling regulations in the President's Health Care Plan look small (and constitutional).
Find out what's happening in Marlboroughwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Assuming this Behemoth was allowed to take effect, (which basically creates a new, open-ended, entitlement program), it is logical to conclude that current Medicare and Medicaid recipients would negatively be affected by the massive rationing of health care dollars that undoubtedly would happen by placing all Massachusetts residents into a government run health care plan.
And what would my opponent then propose for the hundreds of newly unemployed residents as a result of adopting a Vermont or Canadian health care model here?
LOCAL ITEM: Across our district local aid is down, property taxes are up and home values are falling. Road, bridge and MBTA jobs take seven to 10-plus years to build. Chapter 70 School Aid relative to the big cities is still not equitable.
Yet, our State Senator this spring has focused almost exclusively on a non-binding, campaign finance resolution for the U.S. Supreme Court, changing the Electoral College to a popular vote and this single payer health care bill so radical and unworkable it would never pass (thankfully) the state Legislature.
It is time to put education and the economy first, not a failed and progressive policy agenda catered exclusively to the special interests. Let's speed up MassDOT projects, create new jobs by supporting all small businesses, and improve public education by eliminating decade's old, unfunded state mandates-cost-shifting new expenses on to local taxpayers and municipalities.
Finally, let's save the Medicare we have for senior citizens (age 65 and over), before unrealistically granting the financially stressed program to everyone.
Dean Cavaretta (R-Stow)
2012 Candidate for State Senate
