Montana Standard: Counterpoint…Rehberg out of touch with seniors
Congressman Dennis Rehberg has a knack for letting his party’s soundbites get in the way of solutions-and facts.
He tells Montanans what we want to hear about bi-partisanship and working together, but his record tells a very different story. And when he tells us he’ll never vote to undermine Medicare, we will remind him that it’s too late.
Earlier this year, Congressman Rehberg tried to repeal and defund the health care reform bill-a measure that strengthened Medicare and closed the Medicare “donut hole,” making prescription drugs cheaper for more than 12,000 Montana seniors.
Last year, nearly 11,500 Montana Seniors received $250 checks to help them pay for prescription drugs. Congressman Rehberg then tried to cover his base by saying the health care bill somehow cut Medicare funding.
But Politifact.com, an independent, Pulitzer-prize winning fact-checking website, debunked Congressman Rehberg’s talking point as “false.” So will anyone else who actually reads the bill.
Here is what is not false: Congressman Rehberg’s defunding scheme would have disrupted Medicare coverage to nearly 25,000 Montana seniors, according to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Kaiser Family Foundation. He backed a plan that would have denied free preventative care for almost 160,000 seniors in our state.
He backed a plan that would have kept the Medicare donut hole wide open-a move that would have cost Montana seniors an additional $138 million through 2020.
