The Obama administration will cut doctor and hospital reimbursements to achieve those $716 billion in savings, risking the economic viability of many health care companies, including clinics, hospitals, and nursing homes. It will also make doctors extremely reluctant to take on any more Medicare patients. With a physician shortage already exacerbated by ObamaCare, some seniors may find it difficult to get any health care at all except from emergency rooms.
Ryan’s voucher plan has its own problems, but at least is a big step in the right direction. The strategy employed by the Romney campaign appears to offer a contrast between the two plans while blunting criticism from Democrats that the Ryan plan would “end Medicare as we know it.” Both plans would essentially accomplish that. If that point can be made, a debate about the future of Medicare can proceed without the demagoguery employed by the Obama campaign.
The more that people learn about the Ryan plan, the less successful the Democrats will be in scaring seniors about its provisions. If this strategy is able to at least neutralize the Medicare issue, Romney will have achieved exactly what he needs in order to win in November.
This reminds me of the phrase, “Robbing Peter to pay Paul”.
That is exactly what it is. You are right.
http://uselections2012blog.blogspot.ca/
Actually it’s robbing Peter at 25 to pay Peter at 65 but point taken.
Converting Medicare to a voucher system will have the added benefit of helping to drive down premium costs of private health insurance (PHI). It is well documented that low reimbursement rates from Medicare and Medicaid result in cost shifting by hospitals and providers that drive up premiums for the privately insured.
Also, some physicians (with more to come given the looming physician shortage) won’t accept Medicare patients or limit the number they will take. A voucher system would allow people to buy up to a product that pays the doctor more competitive rates. Right now, Medicare is the equivalent of the NHS- you’re either in or you’re out- and few people can afford to go out.
Ohhhh, Obama is gonna get roughed up on this argument. It’s good for Prez Barack Hussein that nobody will know about it except for maybe a couple million Fox RINO viewers.
I say this cuz the Ivy League geniuses in the White House couldn’t even figure out how to forge the birth certificate offered as proof that Hussein was born here. But the same media coverage principle applied there as it soon will with ObamaCare; it was accorded minimum required coverage combined with a maximum amount of spin and even some bald-faced lying.
Anybody see Juan Williams on Fox RINO deny that $716 billion was cut from Medicare? His spin was based on the lie that the missing money would be made up in lower billing rates. He didn’t know about the rates, Krauthammer had to point it out on his behalf.
juan willams said what he did?
because he’s a racist and obama is (clear your throat) black.
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I honestly don’t know how they can cut Medicare any more than it is. It’s crappy insurance, both for the patient and the provider. And don’t believe this song and dance about squeezing out waste, either- after decades of going after fraud and abuse, there’s not that much out there (though the occasional headline might tempt one to believe differently).
As far as I can see, the main waste with Medicare is the bureaucracy that runs it. I think it’s rather rich that Obamacare contains penalties for insurance companies that don’t spend more than 80% of their premiums on medical care. I doubt very much that 80% of the Medicare tax is spent on care. The amount of waste in administration of the program has got to be staggering.
Tort reform and regulation reform would reduce costs significantly.
I’ve worked some on systems in the health billing area. The thing that strikes me is that the HCFA 1500, the form Perot’s guys at IBM invented in the mid-1960s, is still the basis for nearly all clinical bulling today. In other words, healthcare operates today on a steam-driven rickety antiquated highly inefficient software architecture from the days of LBJ (that esteemed and history-making socialist). Modernizing it would save at least the $716 billion we’re talking about here.
Of course, we didn’t hear about that in the “healthcare reform debate” the socialists held among themselves a couple of years ago. A disfigured, ignorant, one-sided stupid debate over a bill with “Affordable” in its name that has only raised the already shameless level of inefficiency.
Very true. Unfortunately, both of those things threaten to derail someone else’s gravy train, and those people seem to have more pull with the politicians.
“The amount of waste in administration of the program has got to be staggering.”
It’s not just the administration. The fraud and waste permeate every level. Even if you ignore the bona-fide fraud around something as simple as a power chair, does anyone actually believe that one of those things would cost $10,000 or more if they weren’t covered (or covered under a more stringent standard). You couldn’t legitimately pile on a $10,000 price tag even if these things were built by the UAW.
Obama campaign Senior Adviser David Axelrod contradicts Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter on President Obama cutting nearly three quarters of a trillion dollars from Medicare.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK49WTpjYfM&feature=player_embedded
Obama’s liars and enablers in the media claim that Obama, through expert medical management of medicare, will be able to CUT spending to hospitals, doctors, and other medicare service providers thus generating these so called savings of $716 billion. (This assumptionn is a pure crock) They claim that NO benefits will be cut from medicare recipients. All this wonderfual stuff at a time when baby boomers are retiring like crazy, doctors are fleeing the profession, hospitals are closing, and 30 million new insureds show up to demand Obama care. NOW someone tell me that this is not just risky but insanity. The way they get through this is through this 15 elitists liberal death panel types manned by Berwick and Sustein types who will cut older people off at the knees and deny them services. Ryan and Romney (old R&R) are taking it to these bs artists and good. This is a winning argument against a bunch of criminal scum bags. Conservatives are the good guys in this fight so lets get behind these guys and drive this home. This election is a fight for our country and a return to our roots as independent freedome loving Americans. Don’t tread on us anymore!!
What bothers me about this whole Medicare discussion is the falsity of the both sides. Does the Ryan budget do away with Medicare? Yes, of course it does. It replaces the Medicare pram with vouchers for for participants to purchase coverage in the the (non-existent at present) open market. Does the Obama administration want to continue the program in perpetuity without major structural reforms? Yes. My personal feeling is the let the old and poor – and their families – fend for themselves. If people cannot afford medical care, they can either shop around for a cheaper option or they can spend whatever money they have on care. After that, maybe charity can take over but if not, too bad, so sad. Better to decrease the surplus population. This isn’t socialism, this is the free market, pay or not, you live with your choices.
Brutus, well named. “Decrease the surplus population.” Surely you are a young man. More growing to do. It is, in fact the countries such as North Korea, China and others who have their ‘elites’ who talk of such ‘control’, and interestingly it is also POTUS with his IPAB…everyone is just a statistic. Perhaps it is YOU, who would be deemed ‘expendable’ in your statistical world, what then my friend? Are YOU expendable? If one of YOUR loved ones (if someone like you has any) expendable? I will pray for your growing more accountable, the world is a more complicated place my friend. Read Corinthians 13, if your heart is open to it, it may help you. Semper Fi.
For a good laugh you should watch Robert Gibbs try and explain to Chris Wallace on FNS how the regime expects to get 700 billion in savings from “providers” just “doing a better job.”
You just have to hear it to actually believe they are trying this one out.
Axelrod must have been really reaching when he turfed that one out of his computer and then fired it over to the DNC for redistribution to all DBM channels..
To begin with doctors=providers hate anything to do with medicare or medicaid and the rush is on to stop taking either one all together. That is for the doctors who will not retire or go to Costa Rica when and if ozero is reelected and obamacare becomes a reality.
So, what if Paul Ryan was delving into the federal budget when he was still in high school? I didn’t peek at a federal budget until I was out of college. Yet there is no way I would have cast the votes in Congress that Ryan has through the years. Ryan voted for TARP, the auto bailouts, No Child Left Behind, the Medicare prescription drug benefit, the Bush stimulus, the Patriot Act, and military adventurism abroad. No policymaker is perfect, but no one with a libertarian bone in their body could have supported these policies.
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/paul-ryan-biggovernment-conservative
Ryan is the face of the ESTABLISHMENT, and should be considered as such! Wake up folks, and put down your pom poms!
Republicans Hope, but Don’t Change: by Peter Schiff
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/peterschiff/2012/08/19/republicans_hope_but_dont_change/page/full/
Published on Aug 15, 2012 by Ben Swann Reality Check takes a look at Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan’s spending record during his seven terms in office.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKJaVJpJ-FI&feature=plcp