July 30 is a day to be celebrated. It’s Medicare’s 45th birthday. As a result of Medicare, the elderly and people with disabilities receive quality health care that had been unavailable to so many prior to Medicare’s establishment. We should also congratulate Medicare on its record of keeping administrative costs at around 3 percent.

We are very concerned that the recently appointed “Deficit Commission” will recommend cuts in funding and benefits for popular public programs such as Medicare and Social Security. There are alternatives. We can save money by expanding an improved version of Medicare to everyone. The more than $400 billion currently wasted on the paperwork requirements and unnecessary overhead of private insurance is enough to actually deliver medical care for all our people.

If you want to keep and improve your Medicare, and if you would like to see improved version expanded to everyone, ask Representative Capito to support an expanded and improved Medicare for all.

Only by expanding and improving Medicare to all can we reduce costs through negotiation of prescription drug, medical equipment, and hospital costs while eliminating the waste of profit-driven private health insurance companies.

Ann Coulter and Lynn Moses Yellott

Eastern Panhandle Single-Payer

Action Network