Budget Would Affect Elderly, Poor
The Republican budget proposal presents a dramatically different vision of the role of government in America.
Say a big thank you to the Tea Party folks since this is what they voted for. Yes, that's right. You get the shaft because they didn't care if you could afford to live or not. Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are government run programs, but people like the ones below didn't understand that. This is just the beginning of the senior slaughter of programs we need.
House budget chairman to propose Medicare, Medicaid changes
By the CNN Wire Staff
April 3, 2011 11:54 a.m. EDT
House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan's spending plan is to be unveiled Tuesday.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Democratic Sen. Warner challenges Ryan's plan
Instead of Medicare, seniors would get help paying insurance premiums
Medicaid would be cut by up to $1 trillion
Ryan offers few details, but says his plan would balance the budget and pay down debt
Washington (CNN) -- House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan said Sunday he will unveil a Republican budget for 2012 this week that proposes dramatic changes to Medicare, Medicaid and other political lightning rods.
The plan, to be released Tuesday, calls for a controversial overhaul of Medicare, the health care program for seniors, and would impose deep cuts in Medicaid, which provides health benefits to low-income Americans, Ryan told "Fox News Sunday."
Starting 10 years from now, in 2021, elderly Americans would receive government help in paying health insurance premiums instead of enrolling in the government-run Medicare program, Ryan said. He rejected the label of "vouchers" for the payments, calling them "premium assistance" payments instead.
The plan is modeled after one Ryan proposed last year with Alice Rivlin, budget director under President Bill Clinton. The Ryan-Rivlin plan said the amount of assistance would be calculated in part by taking the average federal cost per Medicare enrollee.
read more here
House budget chairman to propose Medicare, Medicaid changes
His summary of the Medicare proposal said, “Health plans that choose to participate in the Medicare exchange must agree to offer insurance to all Medicare beneficiaries, to avoid cherry-picking and ensure that Medicare’s sickest and highest-cost beneficiaries receive coverage.”Under his plan, poorer and sicker people in Medicare in future decades would be more heavily subsidized by the taxpayers than would wealthier and healthier retirees.
ReplyDeleteI have a question for you. Do you really believe that? We have a long history in this country of trusting what people say and not watching what they end up doing.
ReplyDeleteWhat is "cherry picking" and who decides what is not necessary? Who decides what is paid for and what is not?
Do you know that many veterans are on Medicare plus VA? Anything connect to their service connected disability is covered by the VA and everything else they are treated for is billed to Medicare.
My husband had to take early retirement for health reasons. He paid into a retirement account instead of Social Security because he was a public employee. He does cannot receive Social Security or Medicare because of this and we have to pay for private insurance the VA bills for anything not tied to his service. From what I understand we have the option of getting off of private insurance but we do not want to battle doctors. If they take Medicare and Medicaid, they usually take VA but not all of them do.
When we hear about all the talk coming from the Tea Party folks, we have to worry about tomorrow on top of worrying everyday about his health. He's a Vietnam Vet so we've heard this kind of talk for years and we wonder how much more our veterans will keep being asked to sacrifice. Do you know?
Do you know how backwards cutting the VA budget will take us at a time when more are getting what they need? We have so much more work to do for their sake but too many in the Tea Party want the VA turned over to private companies. Do you know what that will do?
It is terrible when veterans end up with different services depending on what part of the country they live in. Turning them over to for profit corporations for "care" will make that even worse. Ever hear of a private hospital shutting down? It happens. What happens to veterans when a doctor decides to stop taking VA payments? What happens when drug companies decide they want to charge more for drugs? Is anyone asking any questions about what comes next with what they want to do?
Saying they care about the deficit is great but they never seem to care about it when it comes to the tax bill rich people should be paying is cut instead. How is that sharing the burden on something so worthy the poor need to pay more, lose more and suffer more?
They keep talking about the deficit as if the debt we pass onto our kids when they are older is more important than providing for them today.
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and even the VA have been their targets for too many years, so I don't believe what they say about any of this. I believe what they do.