A report from the Congressional Budget Office provided added fodder for critics, after nonpartisan experts concluded most future retirees would pay considerably more for health care under the GOP approach — which turns Medicare into a voucher-like plan for those now 54 and younger.
Oh no , retirees will have to pay "considerably more" for their Medicare states unnamed "nonpartisan experts." That is scary stuff too bad the Congressional Budget Office has a different take:
Ryan's plan would put people now 54 and younger in a different kind of health care program when they retire, unlike the Medicare that their parents and grandparents have known. Instead of coverage for a set of benefits prescribed from Washington, they'd get a federal payment to buy private insurance from a choice of government-regulated plans.
"A typical beneficiary would spend more for health care under the proposal," the budget office estimated in its analysis.
Wow, it seems that "considerably" just left the building according to the budget office. People should just admit that the "Medicare that their parents and grandparents have known" is just not fiscally sustainable. I would rather have a voucher program or anything else rather then seeing the damn thing go bankrupt in 10 years. The idea of robbing future generations so that you can have prime healthcare needs to end with the Baby Boomers.
The AP then goes on to say that their budget would hurt the poor and disabled:
They would mean that poor people no longer would have a right under federal law to get health care through Medicaid. Instead, Washington would send each state a lump sum to spend on medical care, nursing homes and other health services.
Wait what right are they talking about? I read the Constitution and it doesn't talk about medical care anywhere in the document. I like the idea that the states will have to run the program and the government just writes them checks. Hell, if the State Medicare program sucks in one state then a poor person could conceivably move somewhere else. To avoid the Federal Medicaid program that poor person would have the emigrate to Canada or something.
Advocates are worried that states will not be able to offer vulnerable low-income people reliable protection. Medicaid payments to providers are already at rock bottom levels. States pressed for money in a future economic downturn might reduce payments to doctors and hospitals even more, and they might even freeze enrollment.
Yeah but then you make funding an issue and boot out the State Legislatures if you don't like what they are doing to Medicaid. This would give the poor a powerful incentive to vote and pay attention to their local races.
Even if they did reduce payments and freeze enrollment it would be temporary like furloughs and such. The idea that the Feds need to run programs like this is ludicrous. Hawaii has a Medicaid program that is supposed to be one of the best in the nation. I don't see how other states can't do something similar. The Federal program is a ripoff and actually penalizes states for doing their one thing.
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