Under Ryan's plan, current Medicare recipients would get to stay in the program. People within 10 years of eligibility — ages 55 to 64 — would also go into Medicare. But those now 54 and under would get a fixed payment from the government when they become eligible at age 65. They would be able to use the voucher to buy a Medicare-approved private plan from a menu of coverage levels and options.
The amount of the voucher would be based on total current Medicare spending and indexed to grow year by year thereafter. But that growth would be less than the torrid pace of health care inflation now. Proponents say it would be like putting the health care system on a diet, forcing every player from drug companies to hospitals to be more efficient.
As long as the cheapest plans have halfway decent co-pays I don't see a problem with it. One positive off the bat would be the ability to index Medicare to inflation or some similar metric. You won't see 12% a year growth in health care costs if people will only be willing to pay 2% extra. We are talking about a market of millions of people so pricing power will drive costs down. Plus the Medicare Approved label will be like gold to a health insurance company because people will flock to them in large numbers. Make Medicare Approved be as hard to get as getting a drug through the FDA and it will be a gold-plated label.
One good thing is it could only start by 2021 at the earliest. That is pretty far off and would allow the people that are already in Medicare to keep their open-ended coverage. It would just be new people that will be affected. I figure that with all the debt being piled on by Obama I wouldn't see Social Security or Medicare anyway. So I am all for whatever Congress can do to fix these programs so they are solvent when I am eligible in 2041.
What would be an interesting twist is by 2021 I would be willing to bet you any money that there will be a raft of Kayak.com like "Medicare insurance aggregators" out there that will help you pick the best plan that suits your lifestyle. If you are active senior at such-and-such weight, non-smoker you would plug that data in and it spits out certain choices that will suit you. Then you could change your coverage year-to-year as new products come on-line and your needs change.
Hell, I bet you by 2021 there will be advanced genetic testing that could map out the chance of you getting expensive diseases and raise or lower the amount of your coverage accordingly. Also it should allow you to buy a cancer rider or a heart disease rider for like $20 a month extra or something. This would pay for the entire battery of surgeries and tests if you happen to get something like this. In fact I would be willing to bet you that by 2021 (and for sure by 2041) medical science would be so far advanced that maybe heart disease and cancer would be a thing of the past.
In any case study away GOP. I want Medicare that I can actually pay for without the Red Chinese underwriting it going forward. I think open-ended Medicare was a great idea for current Seniors and Boomers who lack tech savvy. But Gen-X, Y and the Millennials need something that gives us more choices and is actually solvent when we need it in 20-30 years.
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