by Rep. Gus Bilirakis (FL)

Throughout the healthcare debate, Democrats claimed that if you like your health care plan, you’d be able to keep that health care plan.

But it’s more than evident that just a few months after enacting Obamacare, that is not the case. Millions of people will have no choice but to switch their health care plans.

As the Associated Press reported just this week, nearly 4 million seniors might have to switch their Medicare plan next year.
While seniors would not lose Medicare coverage, they could see changes in their premiums and copayments. What seniors don’t need right now is the confusion and challenge of having to change their drug plans.

When other changes are taken into account, as many as 3.7 million Medicare recipients may have to switch. That’s about 20 percent of the 17.5 million enrolled in stand-alone drug plans, the report says.

I understand the important benefits that Medicare provides to seniors.  I opposed this $1 trillion healthcare plan because it unwisely increases the size of government while raising taxes by more than $500 billion on individuals and small businesses.  I also do not think that health care legislation should fund special deals while cutting Medicare, on which so many of my constituents rely.

Instead of working to produce health care reform that would control rising costs and provide greater access to insurance for those who lack it, the Democrat's, behind closed doors, used a heavy-handed, big government approach to push through a plan that will slash Medicare for seniors, raise taxes and lead to fewer choices and more costly premiums while reducing the quality of care we all receive.

This report is just more evidence of that.