Medicare is under attack.

For decades, Medicare has been a rock solid guarantee for our country’s seniors, ensuring that after a lifetime of hard work, access to quality and affordable health care is secure.

But now, Republicans are proposing to end Medicare as we know it.

Their plan would hurt millions of middle-class Americans, like David LeBlanc from Stoneham. When David retires from a career in manufacturing operations, he hopes that Medicare will cover his doctor visits and the medications he needs. Since diabetes and heart disease run in David’s family, he worries that the Republican plan to end Medicare will leave him and his children with higher costs and fewer benefits. Many Americans have similiar experiences.

I want to hear what Medicare means to YOU!  Click HERE to share your story.

  • What does Medicare mean to you?
  • Have you or a loved one relied on Medicare to visit your doctor or to help pay for medication?
  • Would your healthcare suffer if Republicans succeeded in their plan to end Medicare?

“I’m not just thinking about myself,” David told me. “I’m thinking about my three children and wondering whether Medicare will still be around for them. Medicare is part of America, like apple pie. And it’s not right that Republicans in Washington are trying to take it away from people who’ve worked hard their whole life to earn their Medicare benefits.”

Your story is important. Click HERE to share your story.

David is not alone. Many people worry about the Republican’s budget plan to end Medicare and what their families will do without the guaranteed set of benefits that seniors have relied on for decades.

By ending Medicare, Washington Republicans would force seniors to purchase insurance on their own in the private market.

What does the Republican plan to end Medicare mean for you?

 

  • Seniors will have to pay an additional $540 per month for their healthcare in the first year of the plan alone. Their out-of-pocket costs will continue to rise year by year.

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  • Someone who is 54 years old today would have to save an extra $182,000 for retirement in order to pay for the increased cost of their health coverage over their lifetimes. That’s about $250 every week for the next 11 years on top of what they should already be saving for retirement. Younger people would have to save even more.
  • The plan raises the age at which you can qualify for Medicare to age 66 for people aged 44-49 and to age 67 for people who are 43 or younger.

And contrary to Republican claims, seniors on Medicare today would suffer as a result of their plan. In the 7th Congressional District of Massachusetts, the Republican plan would force 6,400 seniors who enter the Medicare coverage gap (the “donut hole”) to pay a total of an extra $63 million for prescription drugs over the next ten years. And more than 100,000 beneficiaries would lose new preventive care benefits under the health care law – like free cancer and diabetes screenings.

I recently spoke out on the floor of the House of Representatives in opposition to the Republican plan to end Medicare. You can see the video HERE . I will continue fighting, as I always have, to protect Medicare for seniors today and for future generations.

Help me explain why this is so important by sharing your story about Medicare today. Click HERE to share your story.

Please continue to contact me with any questions or concerns. You can email me, sign up for my newsletter, and stay up to date on the latest issues by visiting my website: http://markey.house.gov .

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Please pass this message on to your friends and neighbors!