Headline
CONGRESSMAN BLUNT BASHES MEDICARE... AGAIN
For Immediate Release: July 29, 2009 CAUGHT ON TAPE: CONGRESSMAN BLUNT BASHES MEDICARE FOR SECOND TIME THIS MONTH Anniversary of health care safety net for seniors is tomorrow; on video Blunt says, “We've had Medicare since 1965, and Medicare has never done anything to make people more healthy.” Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3ah8oViQWA --30--
Contact: Ryan Hobart (573) 636-5241 Ext. 125
Jefferson City, Mo. -- Forty-four years ago tomorrow, Missouri played a prominent role in the creation of Medicare, which currently helps nearly one million older Missourians get necessary health care. Medicare was signed into law in Independence on July 30, 1965, and the very first person to sign up was Missouri’s own, President Harry S. Truman.
But in video footage captured recently in Hannibal, Congressman Roy Blunt makes it clear that he thinks Medicare is a mistake and that it has done nothing to help the people of Missouri. Caught on tape in front of Becky Thatcher’s in Hannibal July 25th Blunt clearly says:
“We've had Medicare since 1965, and Medicare has never done anything to make people more healthy.” (View YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3ah8oViQWA)
This video footage of Congressman Blunt declaring that Medicare, which provides health care coverage to 961,308 Missourians*, has “never done anything to make people more healthy” comes right on the heels of Congressman Blunt actually questioning whether Medicare should have been created in the first place:
“You could certainly argue that government should have never gotten into the health care business, and that might have been the best argument of all to figure out how people could have had more access to the competitive marketplace…The government did get into the health care business in a big way in 1965 with Medicare and later with Medicaid. And government already distorts the marketplace.” (Listen to interview on 93.9 The Eagle in Columbia, Mo. - 4:50 in: http://theeagle939.com/?p=1033 )
“As we near the anniversary of Medicare being signed into law right here in Missouri, Washington insider Roy Blunt seems content to continue publicly slamming a program that provides medical benefits to nearly one million Missourians,” said Brian Zuzenak, Executive Director of the Missouri Democratic Party. “If Congressman Blunt had his way, they’d join the nearly 800,000 Missourians that currently lack health care coverage.” **
“It is a clear sign that someone has been in Washington too long when, with his own government-funded health care plan, Congressman Blunt can, not once, but twice this month get caught on tape saying that it was a mistake for the government to have created Medicare. He should tell that to the seniors who, for the past 44 years, have had access to necessary medical coverage because of the Medicare program. Congressman Blunt is out of touch and out of answers when it comes to America’s health care crisis,” added Zuzenak. “And he needs to get out of Washington.”
*Missouri Medicare Statistics: According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation <http://www.statehealthfacts.org/profileind.jsp?ind=290&cat=6&rgn=27> , 961,308 Missourians were Medicare Beneficiaries in 2008.
**Missouri Foundation for Health: According to Cover Missouri Facts, there are 772,000 Missourians lacking health insurance (http://www.covermissouri.org/facts/ )
