Welcome To The PORTAGE COUNTY (WI) DEMOCRATIC PARTY
PCDP Executive Board Membership Newsletters and Agendas Hot Topics and Action Legislators Candidates Other Links and Resources Calendar of Events Volunteer Opportunities Contact Us	President Barack Obama Barack H. Obama is the 44th President of the United States. His story is the American story — values from the heartland, a middle-class upbringing in a strong family, hard work and education as the means of getting ahead, and the conviction that a life so blessed should be lived in service to others. REMEMBER TO VOTE ON MAY 8! Welcome The Democratic Party of Portage County Wisconsin welcomes you! Please join us for our General Meeting. Tuesday May 8, 2012 Socializing 6:30 PM Meeting 7:00 PM 2220 Division St Stevens Point Former Teamsters Building 715 544 6323 Former State Senator Pat Kreitlow is running to replace Sean Duffy as the 7th CD’s congressman. He’ll be at our headquarters for a meet and greet on April 18 at 6:30 p.m. the PCDP headquarters is located at 2220 Division Street in Stevens Point. Find out more about Pat at his website: www.kreitlowforcongress.com TAKE ACTION…GET INVOLVED… Portage County Board Members Stevens Point City Council wiafscme.org onewisconsinnow.org WEAC moveon.org Ryan Plan Reverses Important Health Care Reforms, Destroys Medicare as We Know It By Congressman Ron Kind, 3^rd CD We must continue to reform our healthcare system to provide higher quality care and a better price, for all Americans. But what do you call a plan that denies healthcare to 300,000 Wisconsin children with pre-existing conditions? A plan that takes from 27,511 young adults in Wisconsin the coverage they’ve gained through their parent’s plans? What do you call a plan that denies over 60,000 Wisconsin seniors with Medicare the $53 million they saved in prescription drug expenses over the last two years? One that turns away the 2,142,000 Wisconsinites, including 791,000 women and 580,000 children, due to lifetime limits on coverage? A plan that allows insurance companies to deny coverage to individuals when they get sick or injured? Lastly, what do you call a plan that eliminates tax cuts for 4,200 small businesses in our state to help them afford coverage for their employees? We would have to call it the Ryan/Romney plan. The Republican budget repeals the Affordable Care Act and the important provisions it includes. Furthermore, it “reforms” Medicare by destroying it. The Ryan plan replaces the current guaranteed Medicare benefit with a voucher for seniors to shop in the private healthcare market. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that under the proposed budget, out of pocket costs for the average senior will be more than $1,200 higher by 2030 and $5,900 higher by 2050. AARP even said, “the proposal…would likely “price out” traditional Medicare as a viable option, thus rendering the choice of traditional Medicare as a false promise.” In addition, the plan endangers access to care for low-income beneficiaries and people with disabilities under BadgerCare, which would suffer cuts of up to 48 percent under the GOP budget. Instead of reducing healthcare costs, the Republican budget merely shifts them onto seniors without making improvements to the healthcare system. It fails to change the way care is delivered, allowing the healthcare system to continue spending $800 billion a year in public and private healthcare plans on tests and procedures that don’t work and don’t improve patient care. And it does nothing to address the 50 million uninsured Americans whose costs when they get sick or injured are shifted to those who have insurance. There is a better way to reduce healthcare spending. I’m working with our Wisconsin healthcare providers to reform our delivery system and change the way we pay for healthcare so it’s more integrated, coordinated and patient focused, improves quality and lowers costs. This is exactly what our providers in Wisconsin are calling for and exactly what the Affordable Care Act takes steps to do. The Act will lower Medicare spending by promoting value-based purchasing focused on high quality care; reducing preventable hospital readmissions; fighting waste, fraud and abuse; and promoting innovation. The Affordable Care Act makes historic reductions in healthcare spending while significantly improving patient care and strengthening Medicare. As we debated healthcare reform, a mother introduced me to one-year old young son and shared their story. Her son had a seizure in her womb before he was born. Therefore, upon his first breath, they were told he was uninsurable due to a pre-existing condition. We are better than that as a nation. I’ve been to Iraq and Afghanistan to visit our troops in the field and I thought I’d met the bravest America has to offer. But if my Republican colleagues can tell children, like the one I met, that not only do they choose not to do anything to help them but under their proposed budget they will take away health care coverage – they must be the bravest in the world. There is no doubt that we need to slow healthcare spending, the fastest growing area of local, state and federal budgets. But it shouldn’t be done on the backs of seniors and the disadvantaged as the Ryan/Romney plan proposes. We must work together and continue steps taken through the Affordable Care Act to strengthen Medicare and improve our healthcare system so all Americans have access to quality, affordable healthcare.
PORTAGE COUNTY WISCONSIN DEMOCRATIC PARTY- COPYRIGHT 2007 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Paid for by the Portage County Democratic Party, Gerald Ugland, Treasurer This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.