..::: NEWS RELEASE
..::: JUNE 16, 2003
Americans for Free Choice in Medicine (AFCM) on Medicare Reform
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA—On the brink of the biggest expansion of
Medicare in its 38-year history, Americans for Free Choice in Medicine
(AFCM), a non-profit patient education organization, warned that older
patients will suffer under the proposed changes.
"The ideas in the proposed Medicare reform bills are
based on government control," explained Richard E. Ralston, AFCM's
executive director. "It's an attempt by the government to control health
care costs by restricting medical treatment for the oldest Americans
under the guise of prescription drug coverage. Patients have the right
to choose and purchase the drugs they need in consultation with their
doctors."
Citing Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of
the Bush-backed Medicare reforms, which estimates that many employers
will drop their retired employees' drug coverage, Ralston pointed out
that the medical profession will be deeply hurt by the changes.
"Pharmaceutical firms are one of the primary reasons
why the United States has the best health care in the world," Ralston
declared. "Their ability to research and produce the best drugs for
treatment of catastrophic diseases will be seriously inhibited if the
President signs Medicare reform. There will be practically no incentive
for drug companies to produce drugs for older Americans."
Americans for Free Choice in Medicine, (AFCM),
founded in 1993, is America's only grass-roots educational organization
based on individual rights, personal responsibility and free market
ideas in medicine.
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Copyright © 2003 Americans for Free Choice in Medicine. All rights reserved.
For reprint permission, contact AFCM.
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