Thousands of NJ-7 Seniors at Risk Under GOP Plan

by: Ed Potosnak

Wed Jun 08, 2011 at 12:07:11 PM EDT

A new analysis by the House Commerce Committee provides District by District information on the impact of Republican Medicare Plan and Medicaid cuts, illuminating the disastrous impact of the Ryan Budget supported by my opponent right here in New Jersey's 7th Congressional District.

Congressman Leonard Lance supported the Ryan budget, which ends Medicare as we know it, turning Medicare into a voucher program.

Here is the impact, by the numbers on NJ-7's CD directly from the analysis:
  • Reduce coverage for 8,400-dual eligible seniors and individuals with disabilities.
  • Jeopardize nursing home care for 1,800
  • Impair the healthcare of 13,000 children (including 400 newborns)
  • Cut payments for Emergency Room visits for 5,000 patients
  • Cut payments to hospitals for 1,500 inpatient visits

Medicaid assistance under the Ryan Plan cuts an average of $13,000 per enrollee over the next decade, putting seniors and persons with disabilities at risk.

This analysis is aligned with the report from May by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC), which estimated that a typical 65-year-old Medicare beneficiary in 2022 would see their out-of-pocket health care costs increase from $6,154 to $12,513 under the Republican budget.

If the Ryan plan to turn Medicare into an inadequate voucher program, for which Congressman Lance voted, were to be signed into law, seniors across America would face bleak economic prospects. But with the exception of Florida, there is no state more disastrously impacted than right here in New Jersey. Congressman Lance has seen these numbers and well knows that by 2022 out of pocket expenses for the typical 65-year old enrollee in New Jersey would jump from $6,832.43 to $13,892.47, the second biggest increase in America ($7,060.03).

I'll fight against that ever being enacted every day I'm in office.

Please help me in fighting for our Seniors and standing up to the GOP's Budget by joining Congressman Barney Frank at an event supporting my 2012 campaign for Congress on June 18th in Warren, Somerset County, NJ.  RSVP Today.