2017 -- H 5227

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LC000644

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2017

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H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

RESPECTFULLY REQUESTING THAT THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS NOT PASS

LEGISLATION THAT WOULD CUT MEDICARE BENEFITS, OR ELIMINATE THE

GUARANTEED LEVEL OF HEALTH CARE COVERAGE THAT HAS BEEN PART OF

MEDICARE FROM ITS INCEPTION

     Introduced By: Representatives Carson, Ruggiero, Morin, Fogarty, and Kazarian

     Date Introduced: January 26, 2017

     Referred To: House Health, Education & Welfare

     WHEREAS, For much of America's history, most of the elderly population lacked health

care insurance and were dependent upon family members and the generosity of medical

professionals to attain the vital healthcare they needed. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Harry

Truman and John Kennedy all tried to pass national insurance plans but none came to fruition

until President Lyndon Johnson was able to secure passage of landmark legislation in 1965 that

covered all senior citizens aged sixty-five and older; and

     WHEREAS, Today, fifty-seven million Americans, and more than two-hundred thousand

Rhode Island citizens, depend on Medicare to pay for their doctor visits, hospitalizations,

prescription drugs and rehabilitation services they need to survive and to maintain quality of life.

Any changes in these benefits would create great uncertainty and anxiety amongst those currently

receiving Medicare and those older workers who will soon be receiving Medicare. Millions of

Americans have planned their lives around the certainty and guaranteed benefits Medicare

provides and it would be wrong and unjust to cut these benefits; and

     WHEREAS, Hard-working Americans have paid into Medicare over the past fifty-two

years and have earned the benefits they receive and rely upon today. Thanks to the passage of

Medicare in 1965, the poverty rate amongst senior citizens has plummeted. Medicare has allowed

our seniors to live their lives independently, to not be a burden to their loved ones, and to live

their lives with dignity. When Medicare was overwhelmingly passed, our nation made a promise

to our senior citizens regarding the guaranteed level of health care they would receive when they

turned sixty-five, and that promise should and must be kept; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island and

Providence Plantations hereby respectfully requests that the United States Congress not pass

legislation that would cut Medicare benefits, eliminate the guaranteed level of health care

coverage that has been part of Medicare since its inception, privatize Medicare, or adopt a

voucher system for Medicare; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to Paul Ryan, Speaker of the United States House

of Representatives, Mitch McConnell, United States Senate Majority Leader, Nancy Pelosi,

United States House of Representatives Minority Leader, Charles Schumer, United States Senate

Minority Leader, and the Rhode Island Delegation to the United States Congress.

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