Labor Union Blog

George Kourpias, president of the Alliance for Retired Americans, writes an open letter to retirees on the need to keep up the fight for health care reform and retirement security.

I often find myself wondering, “Who does our government really work for?” I felt this way when I heard that the Bush administration wants to cut $178 billion from Medicare. This targets the most vulnerable—seniors who need Medicare to afford to see a doctor—in favor of sustaining the record profits enjoyed by big drug and insurance companies. Only in Washington could this be the work of a “compassionate conservative.”

The Bush administration continues to stand by its subsidies to large insurance companies—estimated to be $150 billion over the next 10 years—to operate privatized Medicare Advantage plans, at a cost between 12 percent and 19 percent higher than if Medicare directly served these same people. And on top of this, Bush says he would veto a bill in Congress to end the ban on Medicare negotiating bulk discounts from drug manufacturers.