Shame on you, AARP

Shame on AARP for supporting the House Democrats' health care reform package. At a time when AARP should be advocating for our seniors, ensuring Medicare is strengthened, it is letting Congress ram this misguided health care reform package down seniors' throats. Obviously, AARP does not care about the millions of American seniors and disabled persons who are dependent on Medicare benefits. The House package and the Senate package are predicated on $500 billion in Medicare savings to make these new plans work. That is $500 billion dollars in savings that will not go back into Medicare to strengthen it and to make sure it survives beyond 2017, which is when Medicare is slated to be insolvent.

As the only option a vast majority of American seniors have for health care coverage, Medicare is in jeopardy, and seniors should be outraged. It is intellectually dishonest to take these savings in the Medicare program and put them into a new program only to let Medicare wither on the vine. Every citizen in this country should stand up for our seniors and make it loud and clear to AARP that this is wrong.

Obviously, AARP has not done the math. If you take $500 billion in savings out of Medicare for health care reform, that is $500 billion Medicare will never see again. This is really Medicare reform that Medicare can't afford.

If AARP really cared about seniors it would advocate that every dollar of the savings realized in Medicare go back to Medicare.

PATRICK A. NAEGER, Perryville, Mo.