Romney supporters in Iowa say Medicare must be preserved

Medicare's future needs to be ensured, something President Barack Obama has failed to do, a group of western Iowa Republicans said at a Tuesday press conference supporting presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Their main target: the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare, and the more than $700 billion it will use in projected savings from future Medicare spending growth. Those reductions amount to cuts that put the future of Medicare, projected to run out of money in 2025, in danger, speakers said.

"I want Medicare to be here for myself and my family as well as my children and my grandchildren," said Marge Delzell, a Sioux City resident and former nurse. "Quality of life for seniors is greatly affected by health care. As providers are paid less, that means there will be less access to providers.

"I don't want government taking over Medicare."

Matthew Ung, who works in the quality department at the Siouxland Surgery Center in Dakota Dunes, S.D., said doctors he works with do not want to see Medicare cut. They also are not in favor of the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a 15-member panel created by Obama's plan that would be appointed to recommend proposals to reduce Medicare spending growth.

"They don't want a board of 15 bureaucrats making decisions on how they administer health care. Hospitals have quality departments for this reason," Ung said during the press conference, at the Republicans' Sioux City campaign office at 4133 Gordon Drive.

Romney has pledged to repeal Obama's health care reform and pursue legislation that would give states the ability to design their own health care reform plans.

Such action would be a step toward the reform many people have been waiting to see, Ung said.

"We need a plan," he said. "We've waited three and a half years from the president of the United States for a plan to reform Medicare."

The press conference came a day before Romney is scheduled to visit a Bettendorf, Iowa, aluminum casting supplier during a campaign event.