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Americans for Free Choice in Medicine (AFCM) Blasts Bush on Medicare




July 2, 2003



Richard E. Ralston, Executive Director

Mobile Tel: (949) 500-6829

E-Mail: richard@afcm.org




Bush's Medicare law is neither compassionate nor conservative -- it is pure Big Government and it will bring harm to millions of Americans.



NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA -- Not everyone is thrilled with President Bush's new Medicare drug regulations -- and at least one organization is directly challenging the President's motives.



Americans for Free Choice in Medicine (AFCM) denounced the largest expansion of government intervention in medicine since Medicare was passed 38 years ago as a huge step toward socialized medicine.



The new Medicare law is a fundamental violation of individual rights, contended Richard E. Ralston, AFCM's executive director. The law punishes everyone: the senior and the retired employee, who have a right to free choice of drug treatments, the drug company and the insurance company, which have a right to conduct their business, and young people, who have a right to earn an unmolested living. No one escapes unharmed.



The underlying idea of this law, which was not widely supported among most Americans, is the fallacy that health care is a right, Ralston explained. The opposite is true. No one's need for medical care -- including people who are old -- is a claim on the livelihoods of those who produce and practice medicine, whether doctors or drug companies.



Ralston cited Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of the law, which estimates that many employers will drop their retired employees' drug coverage. Ralston also questioned the President's goals.



The President claims the law is compassionate, Ralston asserted. It is not compassionate to rob doctors, drug companies and patients of their rights. It is not compassionate to rob everyone under age 65 of their income to pay for the wealthiest generation of old people in history. It is not compassionate to institute government control over the world's greatest health care delivery system. President Bush's compassion is a fraud. Bush's Medicare law is neither compassionate nor conservative --- it is pure Big Government and it will bring harm to millions of Americans.



Americans for Free Choice in Medicine, (AFCM), founded in 1993, is the nation's only educational organization based on individual rights, personal responsibility and free market ideas in medicine.



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Americans for Free Choice In Medicine (AFCM)

http://www.afcm.org

1525 Superior Avenue, Suite 101

Newport Beach, CA 92663

E-Mail: press@afcm.org

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