Pallone Misleads Seniors with Latest Mailer

Congressional Candidate Anna Little chides his dishonest tactics

Highlands, NJ—What really is in health reform for seniors? Health insurance that costs more, but does less, doctors who must replace compassion with "cost-effectiveness" and bureaucrats that come between you and your doctor. Congressional candidate and Highlands Mayor Anna Little strongly objects to Congressman Frank Pallone's latest taxpayer-funded effort to mislead his senior constituents and destroy the quality of care they currently enjoy.

Seniors must be alert to the following revealing details, all concealed within the Obama-Pallone health reform scheme:

· A blanket cut of $500 billion dollars to Medicare, even as millions are added to its rolls: Pallone supported cutting funding while expanding coverage--policies which will inevitably result in rationed care, poorer quality and slower treatment. Even the Congressional Budget Office admitted that "reduc[ing] access to care or diminish[ing] the quality of care" is an entirely possible consequence of these cuts. Anna Little, unlike Pallone, knows that risking the lives of seniors to experiment with a gigantic new entitlement is unacceptable and dangerous. Source: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Newsletters/Washington-Health-Policy-in-Review/2009/Nov/November-23-2009/CBO-Says-Senate-Bill-Would-Cut-Federal-Health-Care-Payments-500-Billion.aspx

· "Comparative effectiveness" regulations that will deny life-or-death care to seniors: In an attempt to keep medical costs in check, Medicare will begin to ration care based on the QALY (quality-adjusted life-years) formula, which divides the cost of a treatment by the number of years of benefits it will provide. Since seniors have less time to benefit from any treatment, Medicare's new formula effectively says they are no longer "worth it." Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203863204574344900152168372.html

· Oversight that is oblivious to 99.5 percent of Medicare fraud: In his mailer, Pallone suggests that Medicare fraud only makes up $450 million dollars, or 0.1 percent, of its total yearly cost. This is a gross underestimate, as any of the dead practitioners who were paid $92 million in Medicare claims in the last decade would tell you. Harvard professor of public management Malcolm Sparrow, who was previously a criminal fraud investigator in Britain, called such estimates "ridiculously low." Research has shown that fraud makes up 20 percent of Medicare costs, or $90 billion, every year. Source:http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/medicare_fraud_claims_ehr-39907-1.html

· "Time bomb" taxes and fees that come into effect after Obama has left office: The healthcare law is conveniently structured so that while all of the benefits arrive when Obama is in office, all of the taxes are introduced years--sometimes a full decade--after he has left office, leaving taxpayers with an enormous bill. Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39585.html

If elected, Anna Little would enact healthcare reforms that would truly protect seniors. A full description of her policies, which include health care savings accounts (HSAs) to put seniors in control of their medical expenses, tort reform to end the frivolous lawsuits that inflate treatment costs and a true crackdown on Medicare fraud, are available online at www.annalittleforcongress.com.