(no subject)

[stonebender]

From Families USA:

"The House and Senate are expected to vote on their respective Medicare
prescription drug bills -- probably on Thursday, June 26 -- and the
bills are likely to pass. There are enormous differences between S. 1
and H.R. 2473, and your help is needed to prevent the worst provisions
of the House bill from becoming law and undermining Medicare!

BACKGROUND: During July, representatives of the House and Senate will
form a conference committee to work out the differences between the
two bills. We must make sure that this conference committee rejects
several provisions of the House bill. And the best way to do that is
to make sure the final vote in the House of Representatives has a
large and visible opposition-a strong NO vote in the House.

Families USA has issued a statement of opposition
http://www.familiesusa.org/site/R?i=oyQQ0hQ7t8UDRYvcWDDmjg.. to the House bill,
and the National Council on the Aging has published a list of 10
reasons why the House bill is bad
http://www.familiesusa.org/site/R?i=Fj6BizTStYoDRYvcWDDmjg.. (we agree with NCOA's
reasons, but would have listed their #7, concerning the threat to
traditional Medicare, as our #1). We've also prepared a user-friendly
two-pager http://www.familiesusa.org/site/R?i=iamC0pvtiOcDRYvcWDDmjg.. that
illustrates just how the House bill's requirement that the traditional
Medicare program engage in competitive bidding with private plans,
beginning in 2010, will undermine and destroy the traditional Medicare
program. If you find this piece helpful, you may want to open it and
save it to your computer; then you can print out extra copies and send
it along to others as an e-mail attachment.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Call your Representative today. Urge him or her to
vote NO on the House bill. You can call your Representative through
the Capitol Switchboard: (202) 225-3121. You can also find your
Representative's direct phone number and e-mail address by clicking
here http://www.familiesusa.org/site/R?i=wlQNJ06IeigDRYvcWDDmjg...