Full announcement from Patsy Keever for Congress:

Asheville--Today Rep. Patsy Keever vowed to protect Medicare at roundtables with citizens of North Carolina’s 10th Congressional District.

Participants in Gastonia and Shelby were generally supportive of Medicare and expressed their concerns about changes that Republicans have proposed to the program to help balance the budget.

In a statement issued just after completion of the roundtables, Rep. Keever stated:

I’ve been a firm believer in Medicare since it was first enacted, and so has my 90-year-old mother, who thankfully is covered under this comprehensive federally guaranteed health insurance. My mother and the other seniors of our nation earned their Medicare coverage with a lifetime of hard work, and we must keep our pledge to them. As the Representative from North Carolina’s 10th Congressional District, I promise I will defend and preserve this effective, family-friendly program.

If passed in 2010, Republican Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget plan, which every Republican member of the U.S. House supported, would have replaced Medicare with a voucher system. Seniors would have had to shop for their own insurance and hope they could find coverage that was affordable. Though seventy percent of voters want to keep Medicare as it is today, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll, Republicans in Congress still seem determined to raise seniors’ health care costs while giving more tax breaks to millionaires and Big Oil companies.

Patsy Keever represents District 115 in the North Carolina State House of Representatives. She is currently running for the U.S. House in North Carolina’s 10thCongressional District.