Massachusetts Congressional Candidate Joe Kennedy Favors High Out-of-Pocket Costs for Seniors on Medicare

Joseph Kennedy, Congressional candidate in the newly gerrymandered fourth Massachusetts congressional district, appears to be a big supporter of the Medicare status quo. That makes him a big supporter of continued high out of pocket healthcare expense for Medicare beneficiaries.

A press release said Kennedy:

"... will fight against Republican-led efforts to turn Medicare into a voucher program..."

June 2012 MedPAC Data Book data illustrates how seniors on average currently cover more than half of their healthcare costs out of pocket with status-quo "Medicare as we know it" only covering less than half of senior healthcare expenses.

Part of the reason for this is Medicare's lack of catastrophic coverage, a severe flaw which the Wyden-Ryan Medicare Reform proposal would fix if enacted as is. 

Kennedy also apparently supports the Democratic lie that the bipartisan Wyden-Ryan -- and bipartisan Ryan-Rivlin, and Democratic Reischauer-Aaron, and Democratic Obamacare, and bipartisan RomneyCare etc. -- are all voucher programs.

Not mentioned in the press release is whether Kennedy also supports the President's proposal (which unfortunately has bipartisan support) to change private Medigap supplemental insurance so that seniors could not cover the high out of pocket expenses in current Medicare with their own insurance. These gaps will get worse under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

-- Dennis Byron