FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 23, 2010

To interview Stuart Barton contact Phil Kent at (404) 226-3549

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“President’s proposal worse than Democrats’ bills’

SENIORS GROUP HITS NEW OBAMA PLAN

      ATLANTA—  “On the eve of a Feb. 25 White House healthcare summit, President Barack Obama’s new 11-page proposal is even worse than the Democrats’ House and Senate healthcare bills. It contains more taxes, still drastically cuts Medicare and includes a new socialistic bureaucracy to regulate insurance premiums,” says Stuart Barton, president of the American Seniors Association (ASA) representing hundreds of thousands of members nationwide.

      “The summit would be a good time to contrast reform proposals from Republicans and moderate Democrats with the radical language contained in the president’s new proposal and current Democratic bills.  But the summit will be useless if it is simply an Obama public relations show after which the president persists in a ‘my way or the highway’ approach,” Barton says.

      “The summit should focus on whether congressional Democrats and Obama persist in cutting Medicare by $500 billion. Republicans also have a right to ask how Obama claims he won’t raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year, yet supports $20 billion in new taxes on medical devices and $80 billion on drugs,” Barton says. “The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office warns these taxes will be passed along to patients.”

      “ASA has major concerns over any government-run plan that limits patient-doctor choice. ASA also hopes the summit could address insurance security by agreeing to make health insurance portable and less expensive by allowing Americans to shop for it across state lines and to price policies on the Internet,” Barton notes.

      “The AARP actually announced it was ‘happy’ when Senate Democrats passed their bill containing high taxes, the Medicare cut and patients-last approach. Such AARP cheerleading for Obamacare is a betrayal of its membership, and is why many thousands of disgusted former AARP members continue joining the alternative ASA,” Barton says.

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