HCAN Condemns Coburn Scare Tactics on Senate Floor
Washington, DC – Health Care for America Now (HCAN) – the nation’s largest health care campaign – released the following statement in reaction to Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) trying to scare senior citizens about the Senate health insurance reform bill. On the floor today, Senator Coburn said to seniors, “I have a message for you. You’re gonna die sooner.” (TPMDC):
Richard Kirsch, National Campaign Manager, Health Care for America Now:
“It is a measure of the Republican party’s fear mongering that its leaders would send a medical doctor to the floor of the Senate to tell a monstrous lie to elderly Americans: that they will “die sooner” under the health reform bill.
Politicians of all stripes occasionally resort to hyperbole in speeches, but Senator Coburn’s comments today take the party’s slash-and-burn messaging to new depths. Coburn was following a path set by Senator John McCain who spent the day attacking Democrats for reducing Medicare spending by a fraction of what McCain proposed in cuts to Medicare during his presidential campaign.
The truth is that the Senate health care bill will lower Medicare drug prices for seniors, enhance prevention, stop insurance company overcharges, and strengthen the Medicare trust fund.
As a medical professional, Senator Coburn should know better than to lie to people who’ve instilled their trust in him and his alleged expertise.”
