Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Letter to the editor:

Saving Medicare should be a priority

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Social Security and Medicare benefits remain secure. Despite the claims of detractors, Social Security is currently financially solvent. All benefits will be paid for the next 25 years. With a few minor changes, full benefits could continue into the future. Social Security has not contributed one cent to our national debt.

Over 600,000 seniors and the disabled in Oregon rely on Medicare. Previously, I was denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

Medicare continues to be among the most efficient health insurance providers in the nation. Cost-control reforms are necessary to protect Medicare and guarantee solvency of the program. Slashing benefits and federal health spending will shift the burden of rising health costs to seniors who already spend 15 percent of their incomes on health care, three times as much as non-Medicare households.

The Ryan budget makes it a voucher program that guts Medicare and costs seniors about $6,000 per year.

There are ways to reduce the deficit without Medicare and Social Security beneficiaries sacrificing their health. Currently, a significant percentage of taxes go to the bloated Pentagon. Combine the world’s militaries and the United States towers over them. Money is wasted overpaying CEOs contracted by the Pentagon while soldiers are underpaid, ill-equipped and unemployed when they return home.

The “job creators,” the 1 percent, have enjoyed record profits year after year at the expense of us all. They continue outsourcing our jobs while delighting in tax cuts and loopholes.

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