Betsy McCaughey On Health Care Reform: Lies and Name-Calling

Betsy McCaughey and Representative Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) debated health care reform with Dylan Ratigan yesterday on Dylan's Morning Meeting show on MSNBC.  Dylan challenged some of McCaughey negative statements about reform.  Like any liar when cornered with facts, McCaughey refused to answer Dylan's most revealing questions, and finally complained that he was an "unfair moderator."  She was no less unhappy with Rep. Weiner and called him "ignorant."

McCaughey said that the Democrat's proposal for paying for reforms included cost cuts in the Medicare system, which she said would result in higher premium costs and/or reduced services.  Dylan Ratigan and Rep. Weiner both disagreed that cost reductions would require increased premiums or reduced services.  When asked how she proposed to cut Medicare costs to ensure its survival she said she would increase the minimum age to qualify for Medicare from 65 to 70!

That's an ingenious plan.  Everybody that I know who is retired or considering retirement but is not 65 is very concerned about how they will pay for health care insurance until they qualifiy for Medicare.  Most of these people will be or are receiving a monthly retirement benefit from their past employer but health care coverage is not provided.  The cost of non-group health care insurance is $9,000 to $12,000 per year.  Some of these people may not retire until they are covered by Medicare but many others were recently forced into retirement by their employers after the collapse of our economy late last year.  Without Medicare they will be spending a lot of their retirement savings or retirement checks for insurance for the 3 to 5 years until they reach age 65 and some will risk not having insurance for those years.  If the minimum age is increased to 70 it will be a financial hardship to many of the senior I know who are under the age of 70, retired or will be retiring soon.  Many who lost their jobs due to the economy or fear that they will be and some of those who were already retired may have to find full or parttime jobs until they are 70.

Oh by the way, McCaughey was also a major opponent of the Clinton reform bill when Bill Clinton was president.  She has made a mini career out of preventing health care reform.