Can We Count on You to Call Congress?
The Co-Chairs of the National Fiscal Commission have proposed carving up Social Security and Medicare like a Thanksgiving turkey.
They want to increase the retirement age to 69, deeply cut benefits for middle-class workers, reduce annual Cost of Living Adjustments, increase healthcare costs to patients, and reduce Medicare reimbursements to providers.
We need your help to stop them! Join thousands of Americans in a National Call Congress Day on Tuesday, November 30.
We need to know if we can count on you to call Congress next Tuesday.
Click here to make the “Count on Me” pledge to tell Congress not to cut, privatize, or raise the eligibility age for OUR Social Security and Medicare.
Social Security and Medicare are promises that must not be broken. They belong to our children, our parents, our neighbors, and ourselves. Help ensure that your Social Security and Medicare will be there for your children and your grandchildren.
After you’ve made your personal “Count on Me” pledge, forward this email and tell your friends, family and co-workers to add their voice and participate in the National Call Congress Day on Tuesday, November 30. Don’t let politicians in Washington cut OUR Social Security and Medicare! ACT TODAY.
FYI–I tried contacting CLAIRE McCASKILL (who is “my” Senator, and purportedly a “Democrat”) to refer her to the Kaiser Family Foundation study that shows that people UNDER 55 receiving Medicare (ie, disabled persons) are going WITHOUT essential medical services. These are people whom health insurers REFUSE to insure (or price out of the market) BECAUSE BY DEFINITION we ALL have preexistent conditions which require more services to maintain our health. BECAUSE Missourians (and other “red staters”) have a more difficult time proving to the state (which does the disability determinations, even though this is a FEDERAL program) that they ARE disabled, disabled Missourians usually also have health conditions that require regular physical therapy and/or assistance with activities of daily living that “nondisabled” persons tend to take for granted. Yet we, like people who obtain Social Security and Medicare benefits, are not getting cost-of-living adjustments and we now have $250 + 20% copays. Also, there is some evidence that the lower on the economic ladder you are, the more your real cost-of-living really IS going up, and disabled persons under 55 are over-represented in the ranks of the unemployed and poor.
Ms. McCaskill responded to my e-mail almost the same way her staff responded to my request for her assistance when I was having difficulties with the Missouri Disability Determination Board (they were dragging their feet and throwing all manner of barriers in my way–plus there was a “conflict of interest” because the severity of my disability was worsened by poor decisions and negligence committed by the Vocational Rehabilitation folks, who are in the Department in Missouri). The response was basically, “So?” and then she went on to tell me there were other people in Missouri who have it “worse” than I do, and invited me to apply for Supplemental Security Income (which disabled folks are AUTOMATICALLY considered for when they get their Social Security Disability determinations, and which I had already told her I didn’t qualify for).
In short, she focused on my e-mail as a “personal thing” instead even following through with clicking on the link to the Kaiser study, and understanding it as an ADVOCACY letter, coming from someone who has been on both sides of this situation–both in my lost career as a family physician taking care of disabled persons with overwhelming unmet needs for 20+ years and now as a disabled person who cannot work, and must make the hard decisions about whether to buy nutritious food OR buy necessary medications OR pay rent (public and/or affordable housing is NOT available in Missouri), OR maintain a car (which is–for me–an important assistive device, as I cannot take public transportation because my disability is the RESULT of injuries sustained taking public transportation) and necessary licenses. I absolutely cannot even consider getting appropriate dental care, preventive health care, or getting much-needed physical therapy and assistive devices. I would LOVE to work, but what good is an American with Disabilities Act if there’s an “At-Will Employment” policy and employers won’t hire disabled workers–and even fire those who become sick or disabled–because their insurance rates will skyrocket? And Vocational Rehab is a JOKE–the Missouri VR spends thousands of dollars on EACH participant during the “assessment phase” (they send participants out to independent contractors rather than doing it “in house”), then throws away the assessments and tries to force EVERYONE in the same boxes–if you’re female, you’re going to be a secretary; if you’re male, you’re going to be a custodian–REGARDLESS of previous employment or education! They say “A mind is a terrible thing to waste,” but apparently that applies ONLY to African Americans–not to disabled persons.
Anyway, I think Healthcare–NOW! needs to know who “our” friends are and who they are not. Obviously, ASSuming Claire McCaskill is a “Democrat” and therefore “our friend” is probably an incorrect assumption. She is most definitely a “Republican Wannabe!” And our purportedly “Democratic”/”Liberal” President only curried the favor of the moderately left to get elected. These people “work with” corporations, and when they turn their backs on the poor and disabled and elderly, and eschew the “Liberal” or “Socialist” labels flung at them, they don’t deserve the support of the populace. I’m certainly not going to vote for Republicans, but I don’t see much difference between the 2 major parties, and I think the ONLY way to get Medicare for ALL is for all the progressives, liberals, and “Democratic Socialists” to form our own party and force the Republicans and DINOs out!
Sorry, but I’m just really frustrated at falling out of the middle class because of a genetic condition, becoming disabled, and also losing my country to these corporations, war-mongers, speculators, and their politician toadies. I no longer vote because my choice is too often “Republican” or DINO (Democrat in Name Only), and I refuse to keep voting for DINOs just because they’re “not Republican,” even though they have no intention of doing ANYTHING that’s not “politically feasible (read: conservative/corporate).” My country keeps shifting more and more rightward, regardless of who I vote for or even who’s in power!
At one time, religious groups and clergy were “liberally educated,” pacifist, and believed in helping the poor, sick, disabled, elderly, etc. They were at the forefront of the civil rights movement; they ran non-profit hospitals and health clinics. Now, they’re also becoming increasingly intolerant, “hawkish” and classist. Where are THEY in the “Healthcare for ALL–NOW!” fight?