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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

AARP Presses Congress to Support Trump on Medicare

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Monday, February 6, 2017   

LINCOLN, Neb. – About 300,000 Nebraskans depend on Medicare for health care, and keeping the program strong is among the challenges facing the Trump administration and Congressional leaders.

Government reports show the program will not be fully funded after 2028, and among the solutions being suggested is a Republican-backed "premium support program."

AARP Nebraska State President David Holmquist explains it's essentially a voucher program that would dramatically increase health care costs for current and future retirees. That's why he says AARP is asking Congress to follow the president's lead.

"President Trump made it crystal clear about his position with Medicare during the election,” Holmquist points out. “He said it was a deal that was made with the American people and one that he intends to honor.

“Members of our delegation have been supporting President Trump. We believe they need to continue to support him in his message about Medicare."

Medicare currently is a single payer program that pays for health care directly. The GOP proposal, which aims to reduce costs in order to extend the lifetime of Medicare, would give older Americans a fixed monthly subsidy to buy coverage, instead of guaranteeing their existing level of benefits.

AARP members and staffers are meeting with congressional leaders as part of an aggressive national campaign fighting any proposal to turn Medicare into a voucher system.

Holmquist notes the average Nebraskan over age 65 lives on an annual income of about $25,000 a year and is already squeezed by rising health care and prescription drug costs.

"The biggest solution that needs to be discussed is to have an overhaul of the way Medicare pays out,” he stresses. “We need to address issues of fraud and abuse. We also need to try and reduce the enormous amounts of money that are being paid to drug companies for prescription drugs."

Besides putting 300,000 older Nebraskans' benefits at risk, Holmquist adds the proposal threatens the benefits of about 361,000 workers now paying into the system, who are set to transition to Medicare over the next 15 years.



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