Know Anyone Getting Medicare Benefits? McCain Wants to Cut Medicare/Medicaid To Pay For His Health Plan

John McCain, with his millionaire wife and Senate-provided health insurance, obviously doesn’t rely on Medicare. But, lots of seniors, including my mom (hi, Mom!) do.

Why do I say it’s obvious McCain doesn’t rely on Medicare? Because, otherwise, if he did rely on it, then he wouldn’t be planning on massive cuts in the Medicare program so he can pay for his proposed health care program which, I pointed out in an earlier post, won’t work for families because the $5,000 he wants to give families to pay for their own coverage won’t cover the cost of the average $11,000 – 12,000 premiums. I know this from first-hand experience because we pay for our own health insurance and our premiums are $959.61 per month–with high deductibles and exclusions for my kids preexisting hearing condition.

According to the Wall Street Journal (October 6: McCain Plans Federal Health Cuts – Medicare, Medicaid Spending Would Be Reduced to Offset Proposed Tax Credit), McCain plans to cut as much as $1.3 trillion from Medicare/Medicaid. The Obama campaign says that works out to as much as $882 billion (this is a correction…I had typed million earlier) from Medicare alone.

Talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul…only this case Peter is your Mom and Dad or your Grandparents and Paul is the insurance companies.

Well, finally the Obama campaign is highlighting this overlooked aspect of McCain’s policy in a new ad out today. Make sure any seniors you know who depend on Medicare know about McCain’s plans.