Push Back Against Republican's Desired Changes To Affordable Health Care Act
FERNDALE (WWJ) - On the day that soon to be Republican presidential and vice presidential nominees Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan visit Oakland County, several organizations push back against Republican plans for health care. A group of advocates for the Affordable Health Care Act talk to seniors about the possible repercussions from proposed changes in health care by Republicans.
Michigan Universal Health Care Access Network executive director Margie Mitchell said seniors would lose benefits under the Romney/Ryan Medical Plan:
"It would undermine and actually repeal the affordable care act - which we have worked so hard to get passed," said Mitchell to WWJ Newsradio 950's Florence Walton.
"They would go back to having a donut hole for their prescriptions, where they would have to pay it all for a period of time. They would lose their annual visit - they would have to start paying for the preventive tests they would have to pay for, again, they have a lot to lose as far as the medicare is concerned."
Protect Your Care Michigan State Director John Freeman says a privatized voucher system would be bad for seniors.
"It's awfully ironic that we want to let the private sector insure seniors under Paul Ryan's plan, when the reason why medicare came about in the first place, it because the private sector refused to insure seniors, because they couldn't make enough profit off the seniors," said Freeman. "So to somehow think that things have changed in 50 years - no."
Freeman says Representative Paul Ryan's plan would also reopen the prescription drug doughnut hole for people already receiving Medicare.
