Republican Medicare plan would be a gamble
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Source: LA Times
WASHINGTON While Mitt Romney and Paul D. Ryan are campaigning on a promise to "preserve and protect" Medicare, their proposal to revamp the popular government health insurance program would be the plan's biggest gamble since it was created nearly half a century ago.
The members of the Republican presidential ticket argue that giving seniors vouchers to shop for a private insurance plan would spark competition among health insurers, holding down costs and ensuring the long-term viability of Medicare.
But several previous experiments with privatizing Medicare insurance coverage have ended up raising costs to taxpayers. And on the other side, there is little evidence that moving millions of elderly and disabled patients into commercial health plans will protect their coverage or tame the nation's skyrocketing healthcare tab.
"Doubling down on private insurers is a risky proposition," said University of North Carolina health policy professor Jonathan Oberlander, a leading Medicare historian. "Medicare has lost money on private plans for a long time."
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-medicare-20120819,0,7076443.story
This is a nice, though relatively rare article, that actually addesses the substances of Romney/Ryan's attacks and their proposed plans to turn Medicare into a voucher system in order to "save it" in a classic we needed to burn the village down in order to save it strategy. The article has a nice graphic illustrating the impact of Romney/Ryan's plan:
http://www.trbimg.com/img-503041fe/turbine/la-na-medicare-20120818-g/950
Finally, the article notes that by restoring the spending that was cut, Romney and Ryan would open a large deficit in Medicare, pushing the program's main trust fund into the red in just four years, rather than 12 under Obama's plan.
TheMastersNemesis
(10,602 posts)riverbendviewgal
(4,253 posts)only the house wins in casinos and the same for wall street and the health care insurers.
I took out all my investments in stocks....before the fall. I read and listened and watched...They are only interested in making money for themselves and not at all interested in the average joe or even less interested in the poor.
Being a Canadian is having peace of mind when it comes to health care.
flpoljunkie
(26,184 posts)So much for the 'Protect & Strengthen' Medicare sign Paul Ryan stood behind in The Villages yesterday.
And, shame on Republicans, who use their mothers as props for their stealth efforts to destroy Medicare as a guaranteed benefit.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)They all collude. The only 'choice' will be ho much out of pocket expenses you will have to fork over v.s how much extra money you pay up front..
SunSeeker
(51,677 posts)What is up with the MSM? Can't they call the program for what it is? What's with these euphamisms? A gamble implies you have a chance of winning, however slim. The Romney-Ryan voucher program gives no senior a chance to win. They will all lose to the tune of $6,000+ per year.
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)simple.
Rhiannon12866
(205,927 posts)Please consider reposting in Politics 2012 (or GD). Thanks!