Gray Panthers Meet with Senator Wyden to Oppose Medicare Voucher Proposal

Dec. 21, 2011 - PRLog -- Recently, Gray Panthers name has repeatedly come up in the media in association with Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Paul Ryan's proposal regarding Medicare. In particular, several media sources have attempted to link Sen. Wyden’s past affiliation with the Gray Panthers to try and give progressive credibility to this plan. We want the press to know that the Gray Panthers oppose the Wyden-Ryan proposal as it promotes privatization of Medicare which is contrary to our long standing belief that health care is a human right and our support to a publicly funded, universal system of care. In spite Sen. Ron Wyden’s past affiliation with Gray Panthers, he and Ryan’s proposal does NOT represent the health care position of this organization. And we do not feel his former association should be touted as a means to promote this plan. We urge the media to abstain from further linking the Gray Panther name with this proposal.

Yesterday, Judy Lear, the National Chair and Acting Executive Director, along with staff took the opportunity to meet to meet directly with Sen. Wyden and his staff to express our concerns and directly convey disapproval of his proposal and the association of the Gray Panthers name with something that goes against our values and positions. During the meeting, Sen. Wyden conveyed that he understood our concern, saying he understood and would be more sensitive to the use of the Gray Panthers name when working on things we oppose.

From his roots with Gray Panthers, Sen. Wyden was aware that we have been long-standing single-payer health care supporters. He proclaimed that “Single-payer still has a pulse today because of the legislation that I authored [Section 3112] included as a part of the Affordable Care Act.” The irony in this is, in being such a single-payer advocate, the fact that he would propose a plan that partially privatizes and weakens Medicare – a prime example of a single-payer health care system – depicts a complete about-face is his position. When asked by Judy Lear, “What do you think Maggie Kuhn would think about this?” Sen. Wyden himself admittedly stated that “She would shoot me in head!” And with all due respect to their founder, the Gray Panthers would have to agree that Maggie is probably rolling in her grave.

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Gray Panthers is an intergenerational, multi-issue advocacy organization working for social and economic justice and peace. It is our vision to create a society that puts the needs of people over profit, responsibility over power and democracy over institutions.