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'Protecting Medicare from socialist destruction’: Trump event undergoes name change

President Donald Trump stops by The Villages today. But what exactly is he calling the event?
 
President Donald Trump
President Donald Trump [ EVAN VUCCI | AP ]
Published Oct. 3, 2019|Updated Oct. 3, 2019

What’s in a name?

If you’re the White House, quite a bit of thought appears to have gone into the naming of today’s event at The Villages.

Given the mounting controversies surrounding impeachment, it’s not clear if the tenor of today’s talk has changed. But the White House has changed the title of the event from “Protecting Medicare from Socialist Destruction” to the less confrontational “Protecting and Improving Medicare for our Nation’s Seniors.”

White House officials didn’t explain why the name of the event had been changed.

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Initially, the White House had planned to hold The Villages event in August. But after the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, it was postponed. The Aug. 6 event, like today’s, was scheduled to be a “Medicare-focused” event.

But that’s about all reporters have gleaned about either the scrubbed event in August and today’s. White House officials have been mostly mum, declining to elaborate about what today’s event will focus on beyond the broad topic of Medicare, an issue that has an intense following at the Villages.

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According to the Associated Press, Trump will be touting his support for Medicare and its private insurance option as he counters the “Medicare for All” plan that is pushed by some, though definitely not all, Democrats.

Administration officials say Trump will sign an executive order that calls for bolstering Medicare Advantage, a private insurance option picked by one-third of seniors.

Under Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All plan, all people would be covered under a new government plan. The plan would incorporate the Medicare program, but private health insurance would no longer have a place.

Proponents say Medicare for All offers broader benefits and lower costs.

-- Information from the Associated Press was used for this report.