Contact: Lisa Shin
206-937-9691
lshin@washingtonpolicy.org

SEATTLE — Nationally-recognized health care expert and retired heart surgeon Dr. Roger Stark is available to comment on the visit of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to Seattle, for the purpose of marking the 50th anniversary of the Medicare and Medicaid federal entitlement programs.

Dr. Stark has written extensively on Medicare and Medicaid, employer-based insurance, Health Savings Accounts, the Affordable Care Act, consumer-based health care reform and changes in the practice of medicine in the United States.

Statement of Dr. Stark on the 50th anniversary of Medicaid and Medicaid:

“While politicians are celebrating Medicare and Medicare, they are careful to avoid reports by the programs’ own trustees that these traditional entitlements are financially unsustainable and will run out of money in the years ahead.

In touting government-funded health services, I’m fairly confident politicians at upcoming rallies will say absolutely nothing about rising costs, low payments to doctors, lack of access, limited health services or the financial burden these programs will place on our children.

There is simply no way these programs can continue based on how they were set up in the 1960s.  Back then political leaders thought the money they could collect from worker pay checks would be endless.  We now know that’s not true.

Marking a half-century anniversary may be a great way to score political points, but it does nothing to modernize these programs to ensure they will still be around for the next 50 years.”

All media inquiries should be directed to Lisa Shin at lshin@washingtonpolicy.org or by phone (206) 937-9691 or (206) 349-7542.