New Ad Campaign Highlights Obama's Medicare Plan to Balance Budget on Backs of Seniors

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Action Network today announced the launch of a $1.6 million advertising campaign focusing on President Obama's devastating plan to impose Medicaid-style price controls on the Medicare Prescription Drug Program. A series of print, mail and phone ads will target 43 different House Congressional Districts and 13 different Senators.

"President Obama and liberals in Washington are trying to shift the burden of deficit reduction to seniors through a proposal to introduce radical, Medicaid-style rebates to the Medicare Part D program,"  said Brian Walsh, President of American Action Network.  "This plan would result in higher premiums and higher prescription drug costs for millions of older Americans.  The American Action Network wants to praise principled Members of Congress who are opposing this radical plan to balance the budget on the backs of America's seniors."

As part of the deficit reduction plan he unveiled last month, President Obama called for adding Medicaid-style "rebates" to the Medicare Part D program.  This summer, the American Action Forum released a new analysis relying on Congressional Budget Office reports which found that such a plan would increase monthly premiums by up to 40 percent for more than 17 million seniors.  Specifically, the analysis found that monthly Medicare premiums would increase between 19.6 percent to 39.4 percent for seniors who are not deemed low-income, and the total annual out-of-pocket costs for these seniors would increase between $1.5 billion to $3.7 billion.  

The proposal to add Medicaid-style rebates to the Medicare Part D program has been introduced in Congress by Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV).  It was first endorsed by the White House in The President's Framework for Shared Prosperity and Shared Fiscal Responsibility fact sheet, which was released by the White House on April 13, 2011.

To view the Ads and see a full list of Members of the House and Senators receiving the ads, please visit: www.bit.ly/MedicarePartD.

The American Action Network is a 501(c)(4) 'action tank' that will create, encourage and promote center-right policies based on the principles of freedom, limited government, American exceptionalism, and strong national security.  The American Action Network's primary goal is to put our center-right ideas into action by engaging the hearts and minds of the American people and spurring them into active participation in our democracy.

SOURCE American Action Network