Debate over Medicare, health law already playing out in 2012 races

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Feb 16 2012

Nearly all the candidates for president are weighing in on how to make Medicare fiscally sustainable, while Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says the health law will factor into which candidate he endorses.

Kaiser Health News: Candidates Court Seniors On Medicare
Kaiser Health News reporter Marilyn Werber Serafini writes: "Medicare is likely to play a key role in the 2012 elections-;from the presidential race to contests for Congress. While young and middle-age voters are more focused on the economy, 'seniors are single-issue voters when it comes to Social Security and Medicare,' said Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg, senior vice president of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. 'They are such an important constituency in elections because they are very reliable voters'" (Werber Serafini, 2/14).

The Wall Street Journal: Sen. Graham To AARP: Wealthy Seniors Shouldn't Get Free Health Care
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) is known as an independent thinker who doesn't mind speaking his mind, even if it creates waves around the Capitol. Tuesday morning at a meeting of the Senate Budget Committee he did so again, questioning the underlying principle behind Medicare that all seniors should receive free health care. Mr. Graham turned to the camera and said that if anyone from the powerful seniors lobby group AARP was watching the hearing, he wanted to make it clear: He doesn't think that wealthy seniors should enjoy free health care. Of course, Medicare, the health care program for the elderly, isn't free. Seniors pay premiums along with copays and deductibles, and those with greater income pay more (Boles, 2/14).

Politico Pro: Who Will Win The Cuccinelli Primary?
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says he may endorse a Republican presidential candidate -; but Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich already have a strike against them because of their support for an individual mandate. "It's not disqualifying, but it's certainly a strike against" both of them, said Cuccinelli, who filed a lawsuit against health reform the day President Barack Obama signed it into law. "Whenever you have a government takeover of things, you're not headed in a good direction" (Haberkorn, 2/14).

This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.