Claim: Crossroads GPS Says Joe Sestak "voted to gut Medicare ... reducing benefits for 854,489 seniors" and jeopardizing "access to care for millions.
Verdict: REFUTES

Retrieved passages:
title: Healthcare rationing in the United States
text: Klein described in the "Washington Post" how polls indicate senior citizens are increasingly resistant to healthcare reform because of concerns about cuts to the existing Medicare program that may be required to fund it. That is creating an unusual and potent political alliance, with Republicans arguing to protect the existing Medicare program although they historically opposed that and other major entitlement programs. The CBO scoring of the proposed H.R. 3200 (America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009) included $219 billion in savings over 10 years, some of which would come from Medicare changes. A concept called "quality-adjusted life year" (QALY

title: David McKinley
text: He explained "As it relates to the Medicare, I applaud what Paul Ryan was trying to do, because we need to have an adult conversation about it. The Congressional Budget Office determined that some of the out-of-pocket costs could double for seniors and that sent up a red flag for me that we need to look at it." In October 2011, he was the only Republican to vote against all three of the trade deals passed by Congress: Panama, Colombia, and South Korea. He said “Free trade deals like NAFTA and CAFTA have been nothing more than broken promises that

title: Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act
text: votes from "yea" to "nay". The bill passed 220-215. The Democrats cried foul, and Bill Thomas, the Republican chairman of the Ways and Means committee, challenged the result in a gesture to satisfy the concerns of the minority. He subsequently voted to table his own challenge; the tally to table was 210 ayes, 193 noes. The Senate's consideration of the conference report was somewhat less heated, as cloture on it was invoked by a vote of 70-29. However, a budget point of order raised by Tom Daschle, and voted on. As 60 votes were necessary to override it, the challenge

title: Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014
text: Nancy Pelosi said that she supported the bill because she thought Republicans would use the situation, if the Medicare cuts went into effect, to attack Obamacare and because she didn't want seniors to worry about their access to their doctors. Sponsor of the bill Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) said he still supports a permanent fix and is "sponsoring this bill today because it is my earnest hope that this is the last patch we will have to pass." The bill was originally scheduled to be considered under a suspension of the rules, a procedure that would have required the bill

title: 2006 Ohio's 2nd congressional district election
text: reform, including a comprehensive Medicare prescription drug benefit to give America's seniors access to affordable prescription drugs. Now that the program is off the ground, the evidence is in and we have much to celebrate: the Medicare prescription drug benefit is working, and seniors are saving money. Over 90 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries now have drug coverage - that's 38 million seniors. As of this summer in Ohio, 1.4 million more seniors have prescription drug coverage than before the benefit began." Wulsin ran a television advertisement using the widely broadcast footage of Schmidt criticizing Democratic Representative John Murtha, a

title: Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act
text: approval. The bill came to a vote at 3 a.m. on November 22. After 45 minutes, the bill was losing, 219-215, with David Wu (D-OR-1) not voting. Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay sought to convince some of dissenting Republicans to switch their votes, as they had in June. Istook, who had always been a wavering vote, consented quickly, producing a 218-216 tally. In a highly unusual move, the House leadership held the vote open for hours as they sought two more votes. Then-Representative Nick Smith (R-MI) claimed he was offered campaign funds for his son, who was

title: The Path to Prosperity
text: to Politico, most polls are unfavorable towards the plan. According to liberal columnist Ezra Klein when CBO estimates of benefit cuts are factored in, 80 percent or more of Americans oppose the plan. In June 2011, a CNN/ORC poll found that 58 percent of Americans opposed the idea while 35 supported. Among seniors, 74 percent opposed the plan. In the same month a Pew Research poll surveyed support for changing Medicare and found that 41 percent of Americans opposed it while 36 percent supported it. The Pew poll found that the more Democrats and Independents were made aware of the

title: Accountable care organization
text: Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act. Medicare approved 32 Pioneer accountable care organizations in December 2011; of which 19 remained active through 2015. As of April 2015, Medicare had approved 404 Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) ACOs, covering over 7.3 million beneficiaries in 49 states. For the 2014 reporting period, MSSP ACOs saved a combined $338 million, or $63 per beneficiary. Mark McClellan, Elliott Fisher and others defined three core accountable care organization principles: The model places financial responsibility on providers in hopes of improving care management and limiting unnecessary expenditures, while providing patients freedom to select their medical service

title: Michael F. Doyle
text: with terrorists. This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money". On October 16, 2012, Doyle released a statement criticizing the Republican budget introduced by Paul Ryan, saying that it would "be devastating for seniors in Pittsburgh." According to his report, this budget would eliminate new preventive care benefits for 113,000 Medicare beneficiaries in the district, as well as other cuts to Medicaid affordable housing, and food stamps. "That's why I voted against the Ryan budget when it was considered by Congress earlier this year, and why I am fighting hard to oppose Congressional Republicans' misguided

title: Joe Sestak
text: and the Safe Climate Act. Sestak supports gun control and has a 100 percent rating from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and an F rating from the National Rifle Association. Sestak has called for reinstatement of the federal ban on assault weapons. Sestak credits his support for health care reform as "payback" to the country that gave him and his family health care while he was in the Navy (the TRICARE program), especially for successfully treating his daughter's brain tumor. He supports state-provided preventive care and voted for the CHAMP Act. Sestak originally co-sponsored the Medicare Prescription Drug

title: 2006 Ohio's 2nd congressional district election
text: a half years ago, Congress delivered on a promise we made to the American people by passing sweeping Medicare reform, including a comprehensive Medicare prescription drug benefit to, for the first time, give America’s seniors access to affordable prescription drugs. As we have now passed the May 15 deadline, the evidence is in and we have much to celebrate: the Medicare prescription drug benefit is working, and seniors are saving money." In comparison, the first paragraph of Schmidt's op-ed states that: " Two-and-a-half years ago, Republicans delivered on a promise we made to the American people by passing sweeping Medicare

title: Joe Sestak
text: he co-chaired; extended benefits for those seeking work (COBRA) as a part of the JOBS bill; co-wrote the amendment to give small businesses tax credits, as a part of health care reform, and moved the first significant federals funds into autism care and research, nicknamed the "Sestak Amendment." As Congress's senior veteran, he was an original cosponsor of the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell as well as the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. Sestak also heavily advocated ending bailouts to banks in the Wall Street Reform Bill. Sestak voted for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of

title: Health Care for America NOW!
text: dominated by one or two large companies. Republicans joined with conservative Democrats to block the public option and a proposal to allow Americans over 55 years old to pay unsubsidized premiums to the government to purchase Medicare benefits, which now are provided to the elderly and disabled through a single-payer system that picks up the vast majority of patients' costs. Despite those losses, HCAN supports the Affordable Care Act and frequently declares that the ACA's impact will be extensive in the policy and political arenas. In 2010, as a result of political and legal challenges to the ACA, in 2010

title: Joe Heck
text: protect Medicare for Nevada's seniors and preserving it for future generations; by training more physicians and increasing the use of health savings accounts. In August 2014, Heck broke ranks with the Republican Party and voted against a bill that would have dismantled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. In 2015, he voted to more strenuously police immigration from Syria and Iraq. In 2011, he voted to prohibit federal funding of National Public Radio, and to support the continuing use of federal funds for NASCAR sponsorships. In 2012, he voted to reauthorize the expiring Violence Against Women Act. During his time

title: Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014
text: controversial voice vote. The Senate voted on March 31, 2014, to pass the bill 64-35 in Roll Call Vote 93. President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on April 1, 2014, when it became . Critics of the bill have objected to the fact that there are not enough offsets to balance the increased spending. Ed Lorenzen of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget argued that the "sequester realignment provision is a pure timing gimmick that produces no real savings and has no effect on the debt." The American Medical Association (AMA) also opposed this bill because it

title: Political positions of Paul Ryan
text: nearly a decade later Ryan said Medicare is on an "unsustainable path". Ryan voted against the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as "Obamacare", and voted to repeal it in 2012. The Obama and Ryan health care reform plans capped Medicare spending at 0.5% of gross domestic product; while the ACA established the Independent Payment Advisory Board to control costs, which Ryan characterized as "15 un-elected, unaccountable bureaucrats," Ryan proposed that Congress set reimbursement levels. Ryan supported the American Health Care Act of 2017 (AHCA), the House Republican plan to repeal and replace the ACA; after

title: The Path to Prosperity
text: even split for deficit reduction plans with 44 percent of Americans supporting the Democratic plan while 43 supported the Ryan plan, although the same poll found that senior citizens preferred the Ryan plan over the Obama plan. As well, in a "Washington Post"/ABC poll found that 65 percent of Americans opposed the plan while 34 percent supported it. In April 2011, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 50 percent of Americans wanted to keep Medicare the way it is while 46 percent favored turning it into a voucher system per the Ryan plan. Among seniors, 62 percent wanted to

title: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009
text: to cut costs in order to protect Medicare in the future and cut the projected national deficit. The act, as currently structured, does not cut present Medicare benefits. It reduces projected future increases in Medicare spending such as inpatient hospital service payments and ambulatory care payments that would otherwise undergo annual re-adjustments. These changes would save $196 billion from Medicare over 10 years and removing wasteful subsidies to insurers for Medicare Advantage plan would save a further $156 billion according to the CBO. Gail Wilensky, a deputy assistant to President Bush Snr advising him on health and welfare issues from

title: Peter Roskam
text: Glendale Heights and $243,000 to expand mental health programs at the Access Community Health Network's Martin T. Russo Family Health Center in Bloomingdale. On September 25, 2007, Roskam voted with the majority of his party against expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The bill passed Congress but was vetoed by President Bush. On January 12, 2007, Roskam voted with the majority of his party against the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act, which would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower covered Part D drug prices on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries. Roskam is in favor

title: Jerry Moran
text: opposed the Medicare reform package of 2003, unlike most congressmen from rural districts. He also opposed the Affordable Care Act of 2010, the health care reform bill championed by President Obama. In May 2011, Moran sponsored S. 1058, the Pharmacy Competition and Consumer Choice Act of 2011. In the House, he served as Co-Chairman of the House Rural Health Care Coalition and co-founder of the Congressional Community Pharmacy Coalition. Moran announced that he was voting 'no' on the July 2017 Senate health care bill. Moran criticized the closed-door process for developing the bill and criticized the legislation for not repealing