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Subscribe to RSSThe Daily Rundown's Chuck Todd explains how the Obama campaign will take on the Romney-Ryan ticket.
From the moment Mitt Romney announced House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate, the campaign debate has been full of charges and countercharges over some of the congressman's proposals on Medicare and the budget.
What are the facts? Here’s a guide to Ryan’s budget and his ideas for remaking Medicare.
If you are 65 years old or older and now receiving Medicare benefits, would Ryan’s Medicare proposal affect you? If so, how would it affect you?
No – if you’re receiving Medicare benefits now, Ryan’s proposal would not affect you.
His plan would gradually increase Medicare’s eligibility age from 65 to 67. But his phased-in increase in eligibility age wouldn’t start until 2023, 11 years from now.
Also starting in 2023, Ryan’s proposal would do away with Medicare’s open-ended payment system which now covers most medical costs for seniors. Ryan would limit Medicare spending for those born in 1958 and later, that is, people who turn 65 in 2023 or later.
People who turn 65 in 2023 or later years would get payments from the federal government to help them purchase private insurance; the payments would be higher for low-income people and lower for high-income people; they’d also be higher for sicker people and lower for healthier people.
The payments could grow over time no faster than the nominal annual growth rate in per capita Gross Domestic Product, plus 0.5 percentage points, but they might not keep pace with the increase in the cost of medical care.
Democrats have been on the offensive ever since Paul Ryan was announced as Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick. Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La., responds to attacks from the left over Ryan's budget plan.
So Ryan’s proposal would not have any effect on seniors, that is, on people who are now receiving Medicare?
His Medicare proposal would not affect today’s seniors.
But – and this is a crucial point – Ryan’s proposal for another federal program – Medicaid, the joint federal-state health insurance program for the poor – would have an impact on those seniors who rely on Medicaid to help pay for nursing home care.
As the Kaiser Family Foundation has noted, “Medicaid is the nation’s largest source of coverage for long-term care, covering more than two-thirds of all nursing home residents” and the elderly and disabled “account for roughly two‐thirds of (Medicaid) spending.”
Ryan proposes to convert the federal portion of Medicaid into grants to each state, allowing each to tailor its Medicaid program to its own population’s needs.
The federal payments to the states would be indexed both to the inflation rate and to the growth in state population. But overall federal outlays on Medicaid would be cut by roughly one-fifth over ten years.
According to an assessment by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the spending path as designed by the Ryan’s plan might allow states to “improve the efficiency” of Medicaid in delivering health care to low-income people. But “even with significant efficiency gains,” states would need to increase their spending on Medicaid, CBO said, (and perhaps raise taxes in order to do that) or “make considerable cutbacks” in Medicaid.
“Cutbacks might involve reduced eligibility for Medicaid” or lower payments to health care providers, “or increased cost-sharing by beneficiaries – all of which would reduce access to care.”
If you are 45 years old how would Ryan’s Medicare proposal affect you?
The Daily Rundown's Chuck Todd is joined by Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs to discuss Mitt Romney's running mate and his stance on Medicare.
Since Ryan’s proposal, if enacted, would limit Medicare spending for those born in 1958 and later, a person who is 45 years old today would – once he or she became eligible for Medicare – receive benefits that would be less generous or less comprehensive than those now enjoyed by today’s Medicare recipients.
And since Ryan wants to gradually increase the age at which people are eligible for Medicare, a 45-year-old would need to wait longer to get covered by Medicare.
If Ryan’s Medicare plan became law, then starting in 2023, the CBO said, “Most elderly people would pay more for their health care than they would pay under the current Medicare system.”
What’s Ryan’s argument for treating future retirees – those born in 1958 and later – less generously than today’s Medicare recipients?
Ryan says the future costs for Medicare and Medicaid are unsustainable and will lead to tax and debt burdens that will be unbearable.
“We need to preempt and avert a debt crisis” which would force immediate cuts in Medicare and other programs, he told NBC’s David Gregory last year on Meet the Press. “And the way we propose to do that is do it on our terms and prevent people who are currently retired and people about to retire from having severe disruptions in their lives.”
Republicans have charged that President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul is now cutting Medicare spending by more than $700 billion. Obama, not Ryan, is the one hurting seniors, they say. Is this true and if so, are Obama’s Medicare “cuts” similar to or different from Ryan’s proposed reductions in future Medicare spending?
According to the CBO, if Obama’s health care law were repealed, then $711 billion in reductions in Medicare spending over the 2013–2022 period would not occur.
Even Obama campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday referred to “the $700 billion cuts in Medicare that the president achieved through health care reform.” She said these cuts are “taking subsidies away from insurance companies, taking rebates away from prescription drug companies.”
But that’s not where all of the cost savings will come from: a significant portion of the $711 billion will come from curbing payments to hospitals and other health care providers. Other cuts may be ordered by the Independent Payment Advisory Board, an outside group mandated by the Affordable Care Act.
In contrast to Ryan’s future reductions (starting in 2023) Obama’s reductions in Medicare spending are taking place now – at least the Affordable Care Act orders them to occur and the CBO assumes they will occur.
But it is too soon to judge whether these reductions are providing the same level of care to seniors as before, but simply providing it more efficiently, or whether some seniors are getting (or will get) inferior care as a result of these reductions.
Republican national chairman Reince Priebus said on Meet the Press that Mitt Romney “appreciates and admires the work and the ideas that Paul Ryan has done. But Mitt Romney has his own plan” to reform Medicare. What is that plan?
As presented on Romney’s campaign web site, his proposal – although not fully detailed – includes most of the same ideas Ryan has proposed: not changing benefits for anyone now retired or close to retirement. But for future retirees, he would change Medicare from an open-ended payment system into one in which future beneficiaries would get a payment from the government to buy insurance coverage.
Romney’s proposal says, “If seniors choose more expensive plans, they will have to pay the difference between the support amount and the premium price; if they choose less expensive plans, they can use any leftover support to pay other medical expenses like co-pays and deductibles
Is Ryan’s budget plan, which was OK’d by the House last March, now in effect?
No, it isn’t. The House approved Ryan’s fiscal year 2013 budget resolution in March by a vote of 228 to 191, with no Democrats voting for the proposal and 10 Republicans voting against it. But the Senate has not adopted any budget resolution for FY 2013, which begins on Oct. 1. So in the coming fiscal year, as in the current fiscal year, Congress will operate without any budget. But spending will of course continue.
Apart from turning Medicaid over to the states and redesigning Medicare for future retirees, what else would Ryan’s FY 2013 budget proposal do?
It would cut overall spending by about 12 percent over the ten-year budget window, as compared to the spending plan proposed by Obama; it would cut cumulative deficits by more than 50 percent. Among other things it would limit federal aid to college students and concentrate it on lower income students.
Does Ryan want to cut taxes for rich people, as Democrats charge, and if so by how much?
His FY 2013 budget proposal seeks to have only two income tax rates: 10 percent and 25 percent. The current top income tax rate is 35 percent – so this rate reduction could mean a tax cut for some people -- but Ryan also says he wants to “broaden the tax base” and get rid of “the burdensome tangle of loopholes that distort economic activity” by abolishing many tax breaks. He hasn’t specified which ones he’d seek to eliminate.
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Actually if you look at Paul Ryan's 2013 Budget "Chairman's Mark" you will see that Ryan spends less on Medicare over the next 10yrs than the Obama 2013 Budget submission to congress.
He never added back the $700 Billion cut in Obamacare.
I've paid in for 30 years, and I get to pay in for about 12+ more years, and then Ryan gets to take my medicare and give it to the super rich in tax breaks.
Cool!!!
Romney/Ryan/Republicans will only take your Medicare and Social Security and give the money to the Rich. There will be nothing left for you.
I know!!! Its awesome that I won't be burdened having to worry about my old age. Thanks to Romney/Ryan, I won't have an old age.
You have to know a voucher system that doesn't increase with insurance premiums in even the smallest amount is going to leave a lot of uninsured people out there. I would be willing to bet this would cost much more in the long run.
What ever Romney/Ryan/Republicans could up with.....it will NOT be in your best interest.
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What does Medicare or Social Security mean to Ryan/Romney/Republicans?
CUT / CUT / CUT
Do you really want these people in government representing YOU ??????????
If you are in your 50's or 60's ------YOU had better think .......twice ! ! ! ! ! !
.
As an independent, middle class, undecided voter, I would be more inclined to consider the Ryan Plan's proposals for entitlements if included in a package raising taxes (income and estate) on those that can afford to pay and including cuts in defense. To lay the entire plan on optimistic increases in economic growth and on the backs of the poor is unrealistic and unfair. Why can't Democrats put entitlements on the table and Republicans understand that the lower & middle classes are tired of being screwed to maintain the often inherited lifestyle of the wealthy while supporting global policing and nation building?
this story has it pretty close. however and couple of points, first no one over 55 would lose their medicare.... so if your 55 and 10 years from now you become eligible for medicare you'll get still get it. maybe a minor point but the story only mentioned people who are already 65 and getting medicare. Secondly, Obama's cut of $700 billion in medicare WILL AFFECT YOU.... remember "if you get sick , you'll be able to keep your own doctor..and your own insurance....NOT QUITE RIGHT...when medicare payments get lower by obama, your doctor will drop you like a TON OF BRICKS...he's doesn't work for free or close to it. and as far as your insurance co, If the cost to each employee keeps going up, your employer WILL switch to a cheap insurance with less coverage and less choice of doctors...IS THIS WHAT YOU WORKED FOR ALL THESE YEARS?
obama's cut will not effect us, that is a flat out lie
And what health care program will Ryan be covered by ?He should only get what he wants others to have.He should not receive special treatment for taking some thing away from the rest of us.
He'll have the best medical coverage on the planet, and we'll get the honor of paying for it.
If the country would go to Medicare for all, AKA single payer, this would be a big boost to business (large n small) because they would not have to hassle with health care. Businesses would hire more workers and workers would go to work for an outfit not based on benefits but what best fits their goals in persueing their careers. Medicare for all would cause those of us who have been thinking of early retirement to retire , therefore freeing up millions of jobs and ending unemployment overnight. It's so simple it's stupid not to do it!
Nick Bartow..... EXACTLY!
Ryan's plan is pure hypocrisy and a load of crap. He was a spending fool during the Bush administration. This new found fiscal responsibility is nothing more than doing the bidding of his wealthy bosses. The real ironic part is that the Tea Baggers are going to get screwed the same as all the rest of us, they're just too stupid to know it. Good decisions come from wise leaders who keep the greater good as their priority. We don't have wise leaders. We have corrupt career politicians who's only priority is to get reelected. Nothing will change until we change our government and the way we elect our leaders. November's election is only a choice as to which path to the crapper we are going to take. Stupidity got us into this and stupidity will not get us out.
You are so right. Isnt' there something in our constitution about an ineffective or self serving Congress and the people's ability to have them brought up on charges?
As long as big insurance keep making their hudge profits I'm OK with Ryans plan
Why does all of the cuts have to be borne by Medicare and Medicaid? Because rich Republicans do not need either. Romney’s proposal says, “If seniors choose more expensive plans, they will have to pay the difference between the support amount and the premium price". Hmm, sounds like those who can afford it will not have to choose the more expensive and therefore save money. What I am not hearing is massive defense cuts, where we should be looking. Cut the military budget for items like new tanks (which our generals say they don't need), and how about selling off some of the 700 bases overseas we have, like Japan and Germany. I'll bet we could get some real money out of selling those, and that would not be at the expense of the American elderly. Ryan and Romney do not care about the average American.
The Ryan Voucher system is a sick joke.
Picture the elderly in nursing homes, every year having to call one insurance company after another to negotiate premiums. Completely heartless.
Ryan's Voucher system equals DEATH!
Ryan\Romney equal DEATH!
Medicare was passed because seniors could not get coverage from the private sector Now Romney/Ryan want to go back to that system. It didn't work then,it won't work now. Seniors were the biggest poverty group back then and with this plan they will become our biggest poverty group again. tough luck, grandma. For 50 years Congress has been able to keep Medicare solvent, Now, according to Republicans, that is impossible. These tea baggers are the most inept, uneducated, unintelligent, uninformed legislators we have had for at least 50 years. Destroying Medicare will not fix it.
at least he has a plan. the president has nothing. just keep spending money we dont have. ill take a plan to cut spending over doing nothing all the time.
mrwood3, ummmm the President's plan is the ACA.
You must have missed that...
So Ryan and Robme want to give the Seniors a coupon to buy insurance, but they also want to eliminate the Affordable healthcare act, which would make it impossible for insurance companies to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. How many Seniors do you know that have diabeties, or a heart condition, or cancer, or recovered from cancer, or any number of healthcare issues. So you take your coupon to the insurance companies and they will tell you, sure we will cover you but it will cost you and arm and a leg a month for coverage!!! Any person 50 or older that votes for these two fools needs a cat scan because they must have deminitia. Tell you what the day that all the GOP/Ryan give up their "government" healthcare and accept a cents off coupon to purchage insurance for themselves and their families I'll support their idea!!! Until then forget about it.
"This dumb-phuqe O'Barry stole!-- he didn't cut Medicare -- he stole $700 billion from Medicare to fund Obamacare! get your facts straight left wingbat phuqen iodiots!
he took back from medicare private plans what is rightfully ours to pay for our plan.
Medicare Advantage plans are a rip off and the worst plans you can sign up for.
You may think the premiums are cheap but just hope you don't get sick because you are at the insurance companies mercy and they have none.
Obama cut 700 billion of waste from Medicare and shifted it to ACA to expand coverage for more poor Americans . Get your facts straight and you only look small when u call people names. Just saying
Ryan's Medicare plan and his budget: What's in them for you?
If you are wealthy, another big fat tax cut. If you are elderly, disabled, middle class or poor, you are phucked.
“taking subsidies away from insurance companies, taking rebates away from prescription drug companies.”
Subsidies to insurance companies? That means the insurance companies are already getting money from the federal government? If an insurance company is a capitalist company, created for the soul purpose of being a business and earning profit...then why is the federal government, congress in general, paying subsidies to these insurance groups? My taxes, to the federal government is being used to subsidize, Health Insurance? And then more taxes are being used to help pay for medicaire needs of the retired? Basically a good portion of my taxes is being payed for to help the medical needs of other people. And then i'm supposed to buy my own health insurance? How the hell am I supposed to buy my own health insurance, if 2 parts of my own taxes goes to pay for someone elses?
And the whole, "Let's raise the bar for retiree benefits to age 67..." So i'm 40 now? So when I turn 50, that bar will be raised to what? 69? And when I turn 60, that bar will be what? Raised to 71? The more I age the higher the bar becomes. That's the way it's been for the last 30 years.
So why are we subsidising a business, that was supposed to be raking it in, and also being competitive on their prices for health insurance? Subsidizing doesn't sound like competitive pricing. Sounds like a crutch. If the health insurance company can't afford to hand out health insurance, then maybe they need to be shutdown like banks. If they can't stand on their own two feet, then maybe it's time to dismantle them.
We also give tax subsides to the big oil companies. Lobbyists have far more say in things than you or I.
"Rick-3416939
Until liberals began screaming about the Ryan plan, I was unaware that someone who becomes vice-president automatically gets any bill they support passed and signed into law. Here I thought it would still have to pass the house and senate before it could become law. But liberals are so sure this is a done deal if Romney wins. It is amazing what liberals think a vice-president can do, they must be so disappointed in Biden who has done nothing"
Biden, even though in the Senate, isn't actually part of the senate - so what would he do? Before Biden became VP - he was instrumental in getting laws passed to protect women and children of abuse, among other things.
Ryan's proposal has passed the house - the senate has not taken it up - it's too ridiculous. why would I want a bill that greatly reduces the amount I receive in medicare - when I've paid into it since 1972? only a dolt would want that.
in the 12+ years Ryan has been in the house - he's brought only 2 bills to the floor: one to change how archery equipment is taxes (he is a bow hunter, so much for thinking of others there), and a bill to name a post office - WOW - now that's some hard core stuff to help the American People.
Why is there no talk of our bloated military budget. We spend more on the military than all the rest of the world combined. Yet, the Republicans will kill seniors before they will cut a penny.
Absolutely. And did we all forget that combined Republican debate (when Mitt had other challengers) when the Repubs jointly stated that they would support invading Iran to keep them from having nukes? Maybe then we could invade North Korea, Pakistan, India, and all others who we don't want to have nukes. Idiots who live on the expenses of the weapons makers.
This lie won't stop spreading:
"In contrast to Ryan's future reductions (starting in 2023) Obama's reductions in Medicare spending are taking place now."
Ryan's budget keeps the $700 billion in Medicare cuts from Obamacare. I cannot understand how NBC could get that so blatantly wrong. Now there are thousands of more misinformed people.
Deanofprogress, Obama's plan doesn't limit health care to the elderly like Ryans plan would. In addition, Ryans plan does NOTHING to rein in the rising costs of health care.
My parents were strong Republican supporters. As I grew up, I became an Independent as I was both disgusted and amazed at the length politicians will go; not be leaders of this country, but to be dictators of this country. How do you make the current president look bad? Make sure you do not pass anything in congress that will make him look good. How do make your party look best? Open your purse and collect billions in corporate funds then run your campaign with half truths so you can win and further seperate the classes. Republicans will not be happy until we resemble the people in the Hunger Games. It appears that if you try to maintain a system to keep the seniors healthy that actually has worked, not perfectly, but better than allowing them to starve or die from preventable disease, then for some reason, the Republicans try their best to push that system into privatization so they become as much at risk as they were before the great depression. It did not work back then, it will not work now. Corporations being the trust for senior health is laughable. What idiots really think that will work? This just prooves how really out of touch our political leaders are. I guess their elderly relatives are immune and do not need Medicare or Medicaid.
I'm UNDER 55 so to people like me, this plan sounds like one giganitic donkey-rod with no vaseline!!! The ONLY reason people over 55 are being "grandfathered" is because they are some of R&R's biggest supporters! HYPOCRISY at it's highest. It's funny that THESE very gheezer's are the one's that are bankrupting SS and Medicare because they are drawing FAR MORE out of it than they EVER paid into it. So crying about saving America's younger generation from debt and dispair rings kinda hollow coming from R&R when WE'RE the ones that are going to not only get SCREWED but STUCK WITH THE BILL as well.
The ONLY way I will EVER be OK with vouchers is if those goddamn idiots in Congress REGULATE the insurance industry so these vouchers aren't just nothing more than throwing a few pennies at us when it's our turn. But you KNOW that will NEVER, EVER happen.
Hey gheezer republicans, if WE have to settle for vouchers in the future then YOU greedly slugs need to get vouchers NOW! No grandfathering!!!
If it's good enough for us, then it should be just "peachy" for you!!!
ANOTHER SCAM PERPETRATED BY THE RIGHT
What happens to all these private health and retirement funds during the next big market recession? The Willard/Paul team is not able to indemnify against market losses; in fact they will be more likely to cause them and be long gone like Bush when the crap hits the fan. The recent American economy has a lot to do with the plight of our present social safety net. The Willard/Paul privatization would fair no better in a market downturn than the present system. Paul Ryan's votes both during the Bush and Obama administration show that he is part of the deficit and debt problem first by voting for unfunded wars and programs which continue to suck the coffers dry and then by holding the economy hostage during the Obama administration so the economy could not rapidly recover. Obama, at worst, can be accused of trying to mitigate the damage caused during the Bush administration, which has cost a lot of money that has to be borrowed because they were never budgeted for.
Also if and when Romney accomplishes his stated goal of getting rid of the Affordable Health Care Act, Insurance companies will once again get rid of higher risk populations; your voucher will be worthless. You have to buy insurance to get the voucher. If they can’t make money on your health, they will have nothing to do with you.
At best Paul Ryan is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He is the new face of Republicanism: young, outspoken, said to be a deep thinker and presents an attractive image. His plans for America may sound great at first read but have all the elements of disaster based on the ups and downs of our economy.
What is needed is a single payer system. Get the profiteers out of health care. The old saying of how many people does it take to change a light bulb can be rewritten as: How many insurance and hospital employees does it take to measure your blood pressure? If you can answer that question, you can understand why an office visit is so expensive. Only one person is needed; the rest stand between you and the nurse each adding to the bill. There is no value added by anyone but the nurse. Hospitals and clinics need many extra employees to play the game the insurance companies force them into. ZEEK