Here’s an outline of what Paul Ryan wants to do to Medicare:
- Eligibility Age Increased from age 65 to age 69 1/2.
Automatic payment reduction – If Medicare payments exceed prior fiscal years’ payments by 145%, providers automatically paid 1% less
Medicare recipients age 55 and older may be covered by current traditional Medicare at Social Security Retirement Age.
Younger than 55 not eligible for current traditional Medicare – They will receive a voucher for about $11,000 (adjusted for increased risk) which will be paid directly to the insurer they choose with the balance remaining, if any, to be paid to a Medical Savings Plan (MSA) for “additional health costs”. The voucher will be reduced based on income, so that beneficiaries with income between $80,000 and $200,000 (160,000-400,000 for couples) receive 50%, and beneficiaries with incomes over $200,000 ($400,000 for couples) receive 30%.
Medical Savings Accounts – Tax-free account for Medicare recipients. Medicare and Medicaid recipients with income less than 100% of the FPL would be eligible for a MSA via Medicare to cover deductibles for the “average Medicare high-deductible health plan”. Those with income of 100-150% of the FPL receive 75% of the full amount.
For those of you reading this who are not on Medicare now, plan on signing over all your assets to insurance companies, hospitals and providers if Ryan’s plan becomes reality. You get a fixed amount to go buy insurance. There are no cost controls. There are no incentives for health insurers to keep costs down. There is only a flat amount that the government will use to “help” you.
If you’re under 55 and become disabled? Voucher.
If you’re the parent of a disabled child? Voucher.
Don’t be fooled by the rationing argument these idiots are trying to use. Rationing happens now, today. This minute. Outcomes-based medicine is not rationing. It’s using funds wisely.
A tax increase would end this debate entirely. An end to the wars would end this debate entirely.
Changing the entire nature of Medicare to a subsidized private insurance system would end our lives. Do not be fooled by Rep. Ryan’s snow job. This is a man whose family depended on Medicare and Social Security in order to get through college so he could argue for taking yours away.
In other contexts, we call that sociopathic behavior.
There is one thing in the excerpt that is a concept I’d agree with, of course not in the way that Rep Ryan et al would like it done. Means Testing – I would favor means testing, but for all cash benefits, maybe not the same levels they say, and definitely not on any damn vouchers.
You are on the mark about signing over your assets, then the insurance companies will get even fatter, and the money managers will have even more gigantic funds to manage and take their “vig” from.
What will the GOP do to hold down costs? Nothing, they want to continue the transfer of wealth to the top earners.
Means Testing, while not bad in an of itself, comes across like one of those Republican count-every-penny-we’re-giving-you schemes that get us something like Ryan’s plan to begin with and it sets up a tiered view of American society. I prefer this notion: You’re sick, go to a doctor and get well and it doesn’t matter if you have a good job or no job, rich parents or no parents.