Fast Facts on Medicare
Tomorrow marks the 45th anniversary of the implementation of Medicare (July 1, 1966), following President Lyndon Johnson’s signing of the landmark health care program on July 30, 1965. Despite Medicare’s great run, House Republicans voted almost unanimously to end it in order to pay for tax more breaks for Big Oil, hedge fund billionaires, huge corporations, and corporate jet owners. And every single GOP presidential candidate also supports this disastrous plan to end Medicare. Here are some fast facts on the beloved program that the GOP has devoted itself to destroying:
47 MILLION…the number of Americans for whom Medicare provides comprehensive health care
51 PERCENT…the number of Americans 65 or older who did not have health care before Medicare was passed, while today virtually all elderly Americans have health care thanks to Medicare
30 PERCENT…the number of elderly Americans who lived in poverty before Medicare, a number now reduced to 7.5 PERCENT
72 PERCENT…the number of Americans in a recent poll who said that Medicare is “extremely” or “very” important to their retirement security
What Would the GOP Plan to End Medicare Mean?
- The end to Medicare’s affordable package of guaranteed benefits
- Immediate increase in prescription drug costs for seniors because the notorious “donut hole” would be re-opened
- A massive shift of health care costs to seniors, more than doubling their out-of-pockets costs:
Evening Brief: Important Stories That You May Have Missed
Why HHS’ decision to monitor sexual orientation in health records is a BFD.
Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) gets a visit from St. Louis-area religious leaders.
American living standards aren’t as high as you maybe thought.
Only a day before he is set to close out his show with Fox News, Glenn Beck takes a swipe at Obama by comparing him to an abusive boyfriend: “Think of your country as your daughter….He is dating our country, and he’s abusing it.”
A year after a scandal rocked Kabul Bank that beget almost an almost $1-billion loss, Afghan authorities arrested Sherkhan Farnood and Khalilullah Frozi, the ex-Ceo and the ex-president, respectively. The investigation into the country’s largest private bank has unearthed “a culture of cronyism and questionable banking practices among the country’s small political and financial elite.”
Rick Santorum is very upset with President Obama for wanting to end special tax breaks for corporate jet owners.
Although the GOP continues to blame the Obama administration for rising gas prices and flagging domestic oil and gas production, a Headwaters Economics study reflects that, once again, “it’s the economy, stupid.”
Nonprofit insurers are sitting on a lot of nonprofits.
GOP Senators seem eager to default, even knowing that social security would be the first casualty.
2012 Watch: Bachmann’s Husband Calls Gays “Barbarians,” Focus Turns to Bachmann Family Clinic
Yesterday, ThinkProgress reported on some explosive comments made by the husband of Michele Bachmann, Dr. Marcus Bachmann. Dr. Bachmann is rumored to practice so-called “reparative therapy” to “ungay” homosexuals at the clinic he and his wife, a top GOP presidential contender, own. Check out today’s MSNBC report on the growing number of questions surrounding the Bachmanns and their clinic:
ThinkProgress also reported late this afternoon that the Bachmann clinic may have broken an agreement not to engage in “religious based counseling” — an agreement it signed in order to secure government grants.
Survey Says: Obama Would Beat Both Palin and Perry On Their Home Turf
As a scant 23 percent of Republicans say they satisfied with their current slate of presidential candidates, many are waiting with baited breath to hear the 2012 intentions of Sarah Palin and Texas Governor Rick Perry. These two polls might want to make them reconsider.
Alaska: Obama 42, Palin 36
Texas: Obama 47, Perry 45