Washington, D.C – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks today at a press conference with Democratic Members of Congress and Medicare advocates to defend Medicare against harmful attacks and to tell Republicans ‘Hands Off Medicare.’ Below are the Leader’s remarks followed by a question and answer session.
Opening Remarks:
Leader Pelosi. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for being here to protect the great pillar of economic and health security for the American people – all of the American people. America’s seniors are central to our family life.
I’m glad that we will be with Senator Chuck Schumer, Senator Bernie Sanders, Congressman Tony Cardenas from the House, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Congressman Ted Deutch, with so many very special guests, Nancy Altman, Rich Fiesta, Karine Jean-Pierre, Jean Ross, Max Richtman. So that’s the program – maybe more.
But I’m here to speak on behalf of the House Democrats because we see close-up and personal the actions of the Republicans in the House to turn their dream of ending Medicare into a nightmare for the American people. And when they do so, they say, “Well, it’s not going to cost the current seniors anything.” No, current seniors will pay more with their budget and their plans for the Affordable Care Act. To open up again the donut hole, to take hundreds of billions of dollars out of Medicaid, which is about long-term healthcare for our seniors – and the list goes on.
Destroying Medicare and making seniors pay more is not what the American people voted for in the November election. Democrats will protect Medicare with all of our strength – just as we did in 2005 and 2006 when President Bush wanted to privatize Social Security, another pillar of economic stability for our country.
Today, we will deliver a stern message to the Republicans in Congress: We will not stand by while Republicans dismantle the promise of a healthy and dignified retirement for working people in our country.
As Nancy said, this is something they had paid into. We are going to mobilize, expose, and defeat Republicans’ deeply damaging scheme to end Medicare.
Republicans don’t understand, but Democrats in Congress do. And millions of Americans across the country are going to make it very clear: hands off Medicare. With that, I’m pleased to yield back to – who’s next? Nancy.
[Laughter]
Hands off Medicare.
***
Q: To Senator Schumer: you claimed just now that privatization of Medicare would mean your doctor gets to charge you whatever he wants – that’s not my understanding. Privatization of Medicare would mean that they would cut a deal with the insurance company. Your comments almost seem to minimize the role that the insurance companies, which have backed you, along with other sectors of finance – you’ve even taken money from the nominee for Treasury Secretary, Goldman Sachs, Citi Bank and so on.
Can you defend that remark?
Senator Schumer. Yes, absolutely. I can absolutely defend it.
First of all, of course, it lets the insurance companies do what they want. But it also lets individual doctors do what they want – and they and the insurance companies together will get together and decide the price. Right now, Medicare…
Q: The doctors…
Senator Schumer. No, no, no. I’m going to answer your question now, please sir.
Medicare right now sets limits on prices because it is government run. Privatization means the private sector – both the insurance companies and the doctors set the price without regard with what the patients can afford. Yes, go ahead, next question.
Q: Michelle Stein with Inside Health Policy. Are there Medicare reforms that Democrats would like to see in the current-elected Congress?
Senator Schumer. Well, sure. We want to see Medicare strengthened. We want to see Medicare improved. We want to see it cover greater – there’s too much in terms of deductibles now – too much in terms of co-pays now. And lots of people on Medicare are forced to either buy extra insurance or not deal with, not get, you know, coverage for things they need. We’d like to expand Medicare, not shrink it, not privatize it.
Senator Sanders. If I could add to it: in this country, we pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. And to quote Donald Trump again, during the campaign, he said, “Wouldn’t it be a good idea if Medicare negotiated prices with the pharmaceutical industry?” We’re going to hold him accountable for that.
[Applause]
And I live 50 miles away from Canada. Many of the same prescription drugs are sold for 50 percent of the price. We are going to bring forth re-importation – Trump mentioned that.
So, to pick up on Senator Schumer’s point, we want to expand Social Security. We want to take on the pharmaceutical industry, whose greed is hurting millions of Americans. Lower the costs of prescription drugs.
[Applause]
Q: Who is going to pay for the expansions of Social Security and Medicaid…
Senator Sanders. You know, that’s a very good question – the question of who is going to pay for it. Right now, top one-tenth of one percent has almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. In the last 16 years, we have seen a tenfold increase in the number of billionaires in America. Today, despite Americans working longer hours for lower wages, 52 percent of all new income goes to the top one percent. Have I kind of answered your question?
[Laughter]
The people who are going to pay for the expansion of Medicaid are lifting the cap on taxable income. Alright? And when you do that, you do two things: we can extend the life of Social Security and Medicare, and we can also expand the program. So in the midst of mass of income, wealth, inequality, of course, the top one percent is going to have to start paying their fair share.
[Applause]
Rep. Schakowsky. I’d also just like to remind you, Social Security came to life in the middle of the Great Depression. Here we are today, not only the richest country in the world, but the richest moment in history. So how dare we as Americans say: how can we afford a dignified – actually, Social Security is so modest right now, we should be expanding Social Security. We can afford to do that. Senior citizens can’t use Medicare for hearing aids, for glasses, for dental work. There are so many ways that we could help our seniors and we can certainly afford it as the richest country ever in the world.
[Applause]
Leader Pelosi. If I can make a further point: since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the cost of healthcare in America has reached the lowest rate of increase in the more than 50 years that they have been measuring that increase. The more benefits we give people, the healthier they are, the lower the cost. Prevention, early intervention – and with Medicare, the intervention that they want to have with the Affordable Care Act is to remove the free early examination for seniors. What they want to do is open the donut hole so seniors pay more.
So this is about lowering costs by improving the quality of access to healthcare and the quality of the healthcare. It’s not just about healthcare in America. It’s about the good health of America. Prevention, early intervention and the rest.
So, it’s a false economy to say: if seniors pay more, it’s going to cost less to the federal tax payer. It isn’t. It isn’t. But again, none of this is possible without outside mobilization in this fight. We can maneuver all we can – inside maneuvering, outside mobilization. The voice of the people. If people have paid into these systems, they should get their money back.
And I might add: with what they want to do through the Affordable Care Act and what they want to do in the Ryan Budget on Medicaid – a trillion dollars over ten years taken out of Medicaid. Two-thirds of that goes to long-term health care for our seniors. They won’t be able to go to their own doctor if you take this away.
So, all of this is connected. All of this is connected. This is an assault on the stability of health of seniors in our country – an all-out assault. And the American people have to respond to it in the most positive way. They responded to the Republican misrepresentations during the Affordable Care Act – total misrepresentations about it. And I’ll say what they are. They said, “You took $800 billion out of Medicare to pay for the Affordable Care Act.” They repeated it over and over. It was a total lie. The savings that came from Medicare were there to prolong – in the Affordable Care Act to prolong the life of Medicare, to close the donut hole, to provide more benefits, including the first – the early, free examination. And that and early intervention made people healthier and saved money in the long run.
So we have to assert the truth. They were misled by the misrepresentations before. They have to be part of a testing – giving testimony to the truth. This is a fight about the character of America and how we respect not only our seniors, but their families. And if you’re 75, 78 years old, you might have a child approaching 55 years old. So, this is about your family. This is unfortunate. We wish the fight would go away, and they would just face the facts, instead of instituting an ideological, right-wing agenda that is called the Ryan Budget that is embraced by [Tom] Price, and to make matters worse, to privatize Social Security.
Understand what is at risk. Be prepared for the fight. Thank you to the outside groups for their mobilization. Hands off Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid and the rest.
Closing Remarks:
Leader Pelosi. You remind me that I should make this further point, and I especially want to address it to the question about cost. Remember I said that the seniors fell for – I don’t know – the Republicans misrepresented with such firmness that people accepted what they had to say – that we took $800 billion out of Medicare to pay for the Affordable Care Act. That was a total falsehood. But, we used the savings to prolong the life of Medicare and to close the donut hole and provide more benefits for seniors.
What I failed to say before is: the Republicans recognized that those savings were there. And you know what they did with them? They took the same savings that we reinvested into Medicare, and they gave a tax break to the wealthiest people in America. A tax cut for the high end in the Ryan Budget.
So, they’re using Medicare as an ATM machine to give more tax breaks to the high end. And it’s very important to understand that dynamic.
Medicare is synonymous with “guarantee.” You take away their guarantee, no Medicare – no matter how they want to characterize it. Medicare? Guarantee. No guarantee? No Medicare. And that is the fight that we are in.
Nancy Altman. If there are more questions, now is the time for more questions. Yes?
***
Q: Walt Cronkite, CBS News. This is a question for Ms. Pelosi. Are you supporting the CR that will be up for a vote this week?
Leader Pelosi. Well, we are waiting to see what it is that was filed last night, and we are diagnosing what is in there. We are disappointed about some things that are not in there because they have – it’s almost a cowardly CR but, nonetheless, we’ll take a look and see, as long as it does no harm.
Q: And do you have concerns about the Mattis exemptions?
Leader Pelosi. No. I think that our Chairman in the Armed Services Committee, the Republican chairman, and our Ranking Member Adam Smith did a good job of protecting the prerogatives of the House on it. It’s a compromise but – you know, I could go into detail on it with you, but it’s a compromise that they have a comfort level with. And Adam Smith is our leader on that subject, and he accepts what they are putting forth. So that I don’t think will be an obstacle – maybe for some.
My friends, the overriding principal since the revolution of our country has been the civilian control of the military. Only in recent history was that diverted from – was it 1950 – when George Marshall was granted a waiver to serve as Secretary of Defense even though he had not been out of the military for seven years. The law says that in order to serve, you have to be out of the military for seven years. The President-elect is requesting that waiver for General Mattis and the way that it has been shaped is, I think, careful in terms of – under any other circumstance, we’d say, “No, you have to have civilian control of the military.” This is not Gen. Marshall. But compared to some of the other people he could put forth, you have to make a judgment.
[Laughter]
Q: Kelly Thibert, National President of the American Medical Student Association. I’m just wondering: how do you foresee Medicare cuts affecting the issue of physician shortage in our country, as graduate education is often funded by Medicare.
Leader Pelosi. You cannot the separate the conversation of Medicare from the Affordable Care Act, and what they want to do to the Affordable Care Act because so much of what we have in the Affordable Care Act – and we certainly would have wanted more – is about medical education, to have enough primary care doctors to go around, to be available and to help support the education of those doctors.
So, Medicare, what they’re doing in the Affordable Care Act is very damaging to the delivery of service for Medicare and Medicaid in our country, and again, this is part of their agenda. It is a part of their agenda, it is a part of the [Tom] Price agenda. Chairman Price voted three times to remove the Medicare guarantee, probably 64 times to overturn the Affordable Care Act – maybe more, and again, has been supportive of the privatization of Social Security. So, it’s a great deal at risk here, and they’re all connected. But it has a direct relationship to what you are talking about when you see them together. Thank you.
Nancy Altman. Thank you. and if there are no more questions – oh, one more.
Q: I’m Daniel. I’m wondering – it seems like even Senate Republicans are even a little squeamish about the possibility of going after Medicare, unlike House Republicans. Medicare obviously has more political support than, I would say, Medicaid. Is there a plan to use the political support that Medicare enjoys to protect Medicaid as well, and is that viewed as a clear threat? I guess this would be directed at you, Ms. Schakowsky.
Rep. Schakowsky. This is a powerful political issue in addition to a powerful policy issue. I think Medicaid is misunderstood as the most important funding source for long-term care in this country. So, people who want to think that Medicaid is only a program to cover poor people, I think they’re going to hear a lot about that, that it’s much broader. It’s a good thing, helping the poor, but it’s also the largest single chunk is for long-term care both in institutions and also in home care. So, I think the tip of the spear is really Medicare because it is ubiquitous and so many families and Americans really get it, but I think this really is a fight not only for Medicare but for health care, for older Americans for all Americans. And it’s going to be very, very hard to cut these programs.
And let’s remember that in my state alone, if Medicaid expansion were removed, that’s a million more people who would not have health care. So we’re talking about 20 million Americans across the country who have benefitted from the Medicaid expansion. Very hard to do these things – to actually do these things. You know, when there was a veto pen in the White House, it was easy to talk about. And they voted 60-some times repeal the Affordable Care Act. Every time a new class came in, they wanted to make sure the freshmen could also vote a few times to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Now that they’re actually able to execute, and that’s execute the Affordable Care Act, I think it’s a new day. And the advocacy that’s out there, this inside-outside strategy that we’re witnessing today is going to be, I think, a tsunami of public pressure to end this war on seniors.
[Applause]
Dr. Sanjeev Sriram. Hi, my name is Sanjeev Sriram. I just want to follow up on the question regarding Medicaid and the political support that Medicare has and where that can be transferred or whether that can be shared with Medicaid. And as a physician who has taken care of low-income families ever since I started my career almost 10 years ago, I can tell you that Medicaid is one of the most underappreciated health care programs in America.
[Applause]
When you look at the most recent recession, Medicaid did the job of keeping our child uninsurance rate – I mean, decreasing when everybody else was losing their health insurance, Medicaid was giving health insurance to millions of American children. There are 45 million kids who are depending on Medicaid. Medicaid is the lifeboat from cradle to grave quite literally. It is covering over half of America’s births right now. It is covering 60 percent of American long-term care for our aging seniors and everywhere in between. You name one crisis that comes to any state, any part of this country and Medicaid has been part of the rescue system. And that is what is at risk when proposals like block grants come along, that Medicaid will lose its ability to come to the rescue of Americans when they need that help the most. Next summer when Zika returns, if a hurricane hits, if our economy takes another dive like it did before, it’s going to be much harder for Medicaid to do that critical rescue work if we let it go to things like block grants. So my hope as a physician is that Medicaid does not become the bargaining chip in the war to protect Medicare.
[Applause]
Nancy Altman. And now you’ve heard the statements, and now we’re going to have Bowzer from Sha Na Na and [who] we call Dr. America to hand deliver these petitions to Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, and we urge everyone here who supports Medicare and wants to go with them, join in. Thank you.
The post Pelosi Remarks at ‘Hands Off Medicare’ Press Conference appeared first on Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.