The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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September 1, 2007

Your View — Medicare recipients, children can be thankful for Walz’s vote

I am state director for Children’s Defense Fund Minnesota.

A recent full page ad attacking Rep. Tim Walz is nothing more than an attempt by well-heeled special interests based outside Minnesota to scare our state’s vulnerable seniors.

The ad was placed by health care groups who have been profiting from billions of dollars in overpayments from the federal Medicare program. Walz voted to end these overpayments and put the savings toward providing health insurance for the 9 million American children currently without health coverage, including 80,000 in Minnesota.

The special interest ads claim that seniors will be hurt if these overpayments of taxpayer funds are stopped. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Walz’s efforts will only strengthen the Medicare program by stopping this drain of funds. His efforts have been endorsed by the AARP, the American Medical Association, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, and numerous other Medicare beneficiary advocacy groups.

AARP, the nation’s largest consumer and senior organization, recently applauded Walz for his vote, saying he put “the needs of older Americans and low-income children ahead of special interests and took the necessary action to help improve our health care system.”

With rural Minnesota communities seeing steep increases in the number of uninsured children, Walz acted on behalf of his district.

Our state’s seniors who rely on Medicare, along with our children, and our taxpayers can all be thankful for Walz’s vote.

Jim Koppel

Minneapolis

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