(RALEIGH) -- U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius paid a visit to Raleigh's AARP headquarters on Tuesday to talk about potential cuts to Medicare. Sebelius said the cuts proposed by Republicans under the Medicare budget would have a devastating impact on senior citizens in North Carolina.

"Cutting $700 billion out of that program over the next 10 years will have a huge impact on North Carolina and particularly on nursing homes and disabled and vulnerable citizens," said Secretary Sebelius.

She told the audience that Republicans are proposing a Medicare budget that would be a radical overhaul. "I think that the House Republicans in Congress have recommended ending Medicare as we know it, changing what is now a guaranteed benefit to an insurance company voucher and putting an insurance company between a senior and their health care delivery."

Sebelius said she thinks about the Medicare program through here father's perspective. She said he recently turned 90.