Cut $500 billion from Medicare

Health care law's Medicare trims altering seniors' views

By Marilyn Serafini Kaiser Health News

DOWLING PARK, Fla. — Until this spring, life-long Democrat Carolyn Land never had a second thought about voting for Rep. Allen Boyd, a Democrat who has represented her area since 1997.

But the day after Boyd cast his March 21 vote for the new health care law, Land, 65, got out of her La-Z-Boy, switched her registration to Republican and began stumping for Boyd's Republican challenger, Steve Southerland. The law "cut $500 billion from Medicare," she says. "Right now, I can see a doctor when I need to, but I'm afraid I won't if that happens. I foresee a long wait."

As emotions run high over the law, anger and fear about its impact on Medicare could be a deciding factor in some particularly close congressional races, especially in areas where there are large numbers of seniors, say political analysts such as Robert Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health. "It could make a difference in any one of these races," he says.

Republican candidates across the country are pummeling Democrats with the claim that the new law would gut the program by cutting $500 billion. Democrats accuse Republicans of distorting the truth: They say the law will only slow spending, at the expense of hospitals and insurers — not seniors.

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