expanding Medicare will only add to the program's instability

You know what happens when a structure isn't built on a solid foundation--it quickly sinks and collapses. Just as a building can't be constructed on a crumbling foundation, neither can the nation's health care system.

Reports from Washington, D.C., indicate that the U.S. Senate is considering an expansion of Medicare by creating a "buy-in" or "opt-in" program for those ages 55-64, instead of a new public insurance option.

On the surface, this sounds like a workable plan, right? Unfortunately, expanding Medicare will only add to the program's instability—a crumbling foundation. We would like to ensure that health care coverage is built on a solid foundation, and we believe that an insurance exchange and market reforms will provide patients more choices of affordable health care coverage options and better access to care.

The AMA's Patients' Action Network supports health system reform; but Congress needs to fulfill its commitments to current Medicare patients rather than expand its obligations under the program.

Call your senators using the AMA's grassroots hotline at (888) 434-6200. Remind them:

1.An increasing number of doctors have been forced to quit accepting Medicare patients because of the program's burdensome regulations and unstable payment system. Adding more patients to the program will force more physicians to make this different decision.
2.Medicare payment rates have failed to keep pace with the rising costs of providing care, causing some of these costs to be shifted to patients who have commercial insurance coverage. Increasing the number of patients covered by the Medicare program will only increase cost shifting, raising premiums and health care costs for other Americans.
3.Twenty-two percent of current Medicare patients looking for a new primary care physician are having trouble finding one. What will happen when more people join? Expanding Medicare will only make the access to care problems worse.