Washington -- U.S. Representative Barbara Cubin stood up for Wyoming senior citizens last night by voting against a bill that would cut Medicare Advantage for all beneficiaries across the state.

“This disaster of a bill will take away Medicare Advantage benefits from every single recipient in the state of Wyoming,” Cubin said. “Nearly 3,000 Wyoming Seniors will lose their coverage for benefits that traditional Medicare does not offer, including vision, dental, protection against catastrophic health expenses and assistance with co-payments and deductibles. I fully support renewing and strengthening SCHIP to aid children in low-income families, but not at the expense of their grandparents."

The bill, the Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act (CHAMP), reauthorizes and expands the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Cubin supported SCHIP when it was created in 1997 to provide health insurance to children who did not qualify for Medicaid, yet whose families could not afford health care on their own. The bill the Democrats passed includes a $50 billion program expansion that makes taxpayer subsidized health insurance available to illegal immigrants and families with annual incomes over $100,000. To fund this expansion, Democrats included provisions in the bill for massive tax hikes, including monumentally high taxes on tobacco products, cuts to Medicare Advantage plans, including those in Wyoming, and cuts to vital Medicare services.

"I have supported the original SCHIP program and still do. The program has been a proven success and allowed Wyoming the flexibility to ensure that every child in our state has access to affordable health care,” Cubin said. "Unfortunately, Washington Democrats are taking a successful program like SCHIP, turning it on its head, and using it as a vehicle to create a massive new entitlement program for upper-and middle-income Americans."

The Congressional Budget Office estimates this bill will shift 2.1 million children who are currently in private health care plans to government-run health care. The bill will double SCHIP spending and cover families making up to 400 percent of the poverty baseline. As stated by a Washington Examiner editorial (8/1/07), "this would put up to three-fourths of all families under a government-run health care program, marking a major step toward Hillarycare’s original goal.”

“This bill was rewritten in the middle of the night by the Democratic leadership, littered with anonymous earmarks, all the while skirting the legislative process by not being subjected to a single Congressional hearing," Cubin said. "This bill makes a mockery out of the democratic process."

The bill passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 225 to 204.