What would make you jump up out of your recliner and run out to vote? I mean, really leap out of your chair, and run on your own two feet down to the town hall or school gym?

I suppose there aren’t many things that we care about that much. But here is one that should motivate you: Cutting Medicare and Medicaid.

That is what Congress is discussing when talking about crafting a “grand bargain.”

One side of the “bargain” is raising taxes, but the other side of that discussion is likely to focus on cutting Medicare and Medicaid benefits and eligibility. Congress has a deficit reduction plan now but it doesn’t like it. So as soon as the elections are over in November, look for a new plan.

Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins need input from the public.

Let’s talk about Medicare first, the national health program for senior citizens.

The plan that Sens. Collins and Snowe voted against last spring in the Ryan Budget would give tomorrow’s seniors the choice of sticking with Medicare as we know it, a plan with a defined set of benefits offered by the government — or changing to a private health insurance plan.

The senior who chooses a private plan receives a voucher worth roughly $8,000, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Since private insurance will cost an older person more than that, the senior makes up the difference in cost between the voucher and the cost of the plan.

I saw a political candidate describe this “new” Medicare to a room full of seniors in another state. He said he would not dream of touching the retirement benefits of today’s seniors. He emphasized that the choice to go with the “new” Medicare would impact people born after 1958.

But, he did not mention the following:

If a senior cannot afford a robust private plan under the “new” Medicare, he would end up with an inadequate plan, or worse, no health insurance at all. As health insurance costs rise, this scenario would become more and more likely.

Today’s seniors would be hurt under this plan.

If younger, healthier seniors leave traditional Medicare, they will drain resources from it, eventually leaving it insolvent.

When the politician said he would protect Medicare, it was the “new” Medicare program he was promising to protect, not the Medicare you and I know today with a dependable menu of benefits.

If you haven’t heard anything about this plan, don’t be fooled. You probably won’t hear much about it until the elections are over, because no one can win an election by promising to cut Medicare. But this new Medicare proposal is being discussed because it is included in each of the three major deficit reduction plans circulating in Washington right now (the Bowles-Simpson plan, the Ryan Republican Budget and the Rivlin-Domenici plan).

So if you hear someone on television say that the Bowles-Simpson plan is a good starting point for deficit talks, just say to yourself, “No, it is not.”

But we’re not done.

Another proposal that the three most popular plans in Washington agree on is limiting Medicaid (MaineCare). Medicaid pays for nearly 70 percent of the long term care in this country. It reimburses the state of Maine for roughly 63 percent of the cost of long-term care, and health care for children, pregnant women, and individuals with disabilities.

I am not talking about the terrible cuts that the state Legislature enacted this year to MaineCare. I am talking about more cuts, coming down from the federal level — cuts in the 63 percent share that the federal government reimburses the state.

Politicians in Washington are talking about changing the nature of the Medicaid program forever. It would end and Maine would receive a grant instead. When the grant is used up, the state would have to pay the full bill, or start cutting again.

So, when you hear about a “grand bargain” being crafted in Washington, ask yourself who receives the bargain?

Is it average working folk who are depending on Medicare and MaineCare in their older years? Or is it America’s wealthiest corporations and individuals whose lobbyists are in Washington crafting the “grand bargain”?

Snowe and Collins must protect traditional Medicare and Medicaid. It is not that we really want America’s wealthiest to pay higher taxes. It is that we working folks cannot survive without Medicare and Medicaid.

Don Berry is president of the Maine Alliance for Retired Americans, a new grassroots senior organization based in Lewiston. Monday, July 30, marks the 47th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid.

Editor’s note: This column was updated on July 30, 2012 to reflect that Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins voted against the Ryan plan on May 25, 2011.