{"id":1197,"date":"2012-11-17T16:11:09","date_gmt":"2012-11-17T16:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/?p=1197"},"modified":"2012-11-17T16:11:09","modified_gmt":"2012-11-17T16:11:09","slug":"protect-social-security-medicare-and-medicaid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/?p=1197","title":{"rendered":"Protect Social Security Medicare and Medicaid!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Please click here to sign the petition to <\/a><\/strong>Protect Social Security. Medicare and Medicaid<\/strong>:<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Women, communities of color and allies call on\u00a0 Congress and the President to protect Social Security, Medicare and\u00a0 Medicaid<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Issues<\/h2>\n
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As Congress reconvenes to address the budget, the first order of business\u00a0 must be to protect the benefits we rely on through Social Security, Medicare and\u00a0 Medicaid.<\/p>\n

Congress failed for the last 2 years to agree on proposals to manage the\u00a0 federal budget and the deficit, and now faces a “fiscal cliff:” without further\u00a0 action, cuts to the military and social programs would be phased in starting in\u00a0 January, 2013. The Bush-era tax cuts would also expire, meaning taxes would go\u00a0 up both for wealthy and middle-income people, starting in January. To avoid\u00a0 these consequences, Congress could just raise tax rates for the wealthiest 2% of\u00a0 the population, but carve out middle-income people, who need the cash to\u00a0 stimulate the economy. Failing that, groups associated with finance capital have\u00a0 advocated for a “Grand Bargain,” first proposed by the failed Simpson-Bowles\u00a0 commission, to cut benefits for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, as a\u00a0 trade off for some tax increases.<\/p>\n

Cutting benefits from Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid would be\u00a0 especially harmful to the health of women, who live longer but have lower\u00a0 incomes. Additionally, women of color, who already experience a host of health\u00a0 disparities and difficulties in accessing critical health services, would be\u00a0 disproportionately impacted by any erosion of Medicaid.<\/p>\n

Raising the age of eligibility for Social Security income support, or\u00a0 reducing benefits, would tip millions of elderly women into poverty,\u00a0 including many without family or friends as caregivers, and who are people of\u00a0 color. They would have to spend down their savings to become eligible for\u00a0 Medicaid, and experience medically unnecessary confinement in nursing homes as a\u00a0 result.<\/p>\n

Medicare is the major source of payment for hospital and ambulatory care as\u00a0 well as for rehabilitation services and considerable home health and nursing\u00a0 home care. Forcing women to neglect necessary care at ages 65-67 would result in\u00a0 greater risk of complications from chronic diseases as they grow older.<\/p>\n

Medicaid provides essential support to pregnant women, their children and\u00a0 people using long term care services at home, in their communities and in\u00a0 skilled nursing facilities. Any reduction of these benefits would irretrievably\u00a0 harm health and hasten death among women.<\/p>\n

Further, the Social Security Trust Fund is entirely solvent through 2038,\u00a0 requiring only minor tweaks in the interim to extend into the future. Medicare\u00a0 and Medicaid are affected by health care cost increases, but cutting benefits\u00a0 will not solve those problems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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The text of the petition<\/h2>\n
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On Nov. 6, women and communities of color gave the margin of victory to a\u00a0 President and members of Congress who promised to fight for higher taxes on the\u00a0 wealthy, for more public investment and for careful cuts in spending, while\u00a0 revitalizing the economy.<\/p>\n

As Congress begins to negotiate on the budget, the first order of business\u00a0 must be to protect the benefits we rely on through Social Security, Medicare and\u00a0 Medicaid. Cutting benefits from Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid would be\u00a0 especially harmful to the health of women, who live longer but have lower\u00a0 incomes. Additionally, women of color, who already experience a host of health\u00a0 disparities and difficulties in accessing critical health services would be\u00a0 disproportionately impacted by any erosion of Medicaid. These cuts would do\u00a0 nothing to address the deficit. Such cuts would force women ages 65-67 to\u00a0 neglect needed health care, worsening chronic conditions throughout their lives.\u00a0 Reduced income support would force many elderly women without family or friends\u00a0 as caregivers to spend down to qualify for Medicaid, and experience medically\u00a0 unnecessary confinement in nursing homes as a result.<\/p>\n

There is a ready solution to raise revenue: Let the Bush tax cuts expire for\u00a0 the wealthiest 2% of Americans.<\/p>\n

We urge you to fight for:<\/p>\n

1. No cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits<\/p>\n

2. Let the Bush tax cuts expire for the wealthiest 2% of Americans.<\/p>\n

Click here to sign http:\/\/trustwomen.civicactions.org\/twsilverribbon\/protect_social_security_medicare_and_medicaid<\/wbr><\/wbr><\/wbr><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Please click here to sign the petition to Protect Social Security. Medicare and Medicaid: Women, communities of color and allies call on\u00a0 Congress and the President to protect Social Security, Medicare and\u00a0 Medicaid The Issues As Congress reconvenes to address … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1198,"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197\/revisions\/1198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}