Pushing Grandma Over the Cliff - Senior Citizens, age 55 and older and The Ryan Budget Plan – What’s In the Ryan Plan and Why!

Paul Ryan Budget Solutions: Image From the New York Daily News Article: "Youthful, ambitious, and controversial: What you need to know about Romney's running mate Paul Ryan"

Cons: Voters, particularly seniors in the key swing state of Florida, may find Ryan’s proposal to radically overhaul Medicare a bitter pill to swallow. Romney will be forced to either embrace his running mate’s sweeping plan or distance himself from some of its more controversial proposals - a tricky political move in either case.

A note on the above reference to Ryan's Budget plan from the Media - the author has obviously not read Ryan's plan, and is betting on the fact that Seniors in Florida (and nationwide) have not read it either.




Perhaps he United State Citizen’s who are nearing age 55 and over have seen the ad below. In this ad, it is suggested that the “Republican Budget Plan” (Which Paul Ryan wrote), would take away Medicare as it is known and replace it for all seniors with a “privatized” plan.

Ad which ran when Paul Ryan wrote the budget



However, those who would have retirees on Medicare and those approaching Medicare believe that Ryan is some sort of monster, along with the rest of the “Republicans” that would push “Granny” over the cliff, have something else in mind – protecting the President’s “Affordable Health Care Act”. What those that would turn an actual solution into a nightmare for seniors are more interested in maintaining public office than actually protecting the benefits that seniors and those now nearing retirement age receive. In addition, by "scaring the bejesus" out of seniors and those nearing retirement age, they insure votes for the Democrat Party (or more appropriately – the Progressive Democrat Party). What hit the fan in 2020 after Nancy Pelosi famously said, (paraphrasing) that since the Presidents Bill was being passed in haste, and those Congressmen and Senators were complaining that they did not have time to read the act and, were therefore, leery of signing it, “they should just sign it now, and then they would find out what was in it.”

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened.

Before the Bill was signed into law by President Obama, member of Congress and the senate, as well as private citizens began to read parts of the legislation that was pending signature - and the result was abject horror. This is why those town hall meetings held prior to the bill’s passage were so incendiary and Democrats either attended grudgingly or not at all. This is why after the Bill was signed into law in early 2010, the Tea Party grew substantially, and why in 2010, there were historical gains made for Republicans in the House. One should be aware that the Tea Party is not particularly partisan, the Tea Party is pro-individual rights, and anti-excessive taxation. Members are from all political parties, and if they tend to trend towards particular Republicans, they so do because of that individuals record on protecting individual liberty and their fiscal record.

In the coming months many will read about how Seniors will have no coverage under Paul Ryan’s Budget Plan, and most likely as he is now the Vice Presidential nominee on the GOP ticket with Governor Mitt Romney, the Democrats, out of political necessity, will make claims that are not close to the truth. This is because they want to hold onto an office, and an ideology, not because their policy or the Affordable Health Care Act, protects those at or nearing retirement age.

That’s a pretty wild statement itself. But one has to look at the Ryan Budget to understand, Congressman Paul Ryan, now V.P. nominee, cares more about those in or nearing retirement that the Democrats. In reading the budget summary below, what one finds is the following: The budget specifically states that those age 65 and older receiving Medicare will not lose any benefits, their program will stay the same, Also, those age 55 and older will receive those very same benefits. However, those under age 55 will be offered a choice, either they will be able to stay on the same program those now receiving benefits under Medicare have, or they can buy affordable alternative insurance. That’s it, no smokes, and no mirrors. The text as well as links to the budget that specifically address Medicare is show below – It is clear, it is understandable as written by Congressman Paul Ryan.

There is a rebuttal as well from the Democrat members to Paul Ryan’s budget (which Democrat Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, will not allow to pass). (This also answers the question of who is responsible for the gridlock in Congress, and why nothing is getting done. Republican’s offer reasonable solutions and Harry Reid doesn’t allow passage.) In that passage it specifically states: That the Ryan proposal undermines the President’s Health Care Act!

What’s in the President’s Health Care Act that should worry every citizens and especially seniors. A video of a Health Care conference appears below – in that Video, Congressman Ryan is politely explaining to President Obama why the Health Care Plan is dangerous for Seniors, and that he has solutions that would offer a fix, as Congressman Ryan believed that the President and House and Senate Democrats really wanted to help Seniors.

CSPAN Video


In that video, Paul Ryan suggests that the present system (Affordable Health Care Act) hurts all families, and that analysis that the Congressional Budget Office provided – showed that Medicare funds were being taken away and used to fund the Affordable Health Care Act – Ryan wanted to work with the President to fix the problem, and pointed out that they had two bills on the floor that were not allowed (by Harry Reid) to go to the Senate. One has to wonder why? The why is because, Seniors and women and name a “minority or group” “vote for Democrats” and the President, as head of the Democrat Party, need to keep it that way.

If they were to actually let the American voters find out “what’s in the bill”, that darn Paul Ryan and those “Republican’s” would look very attractive to voters, and well, the President and Harry Reid might lose their jobs.

It’s very simple: Paul Ryan wants to help the American People, it is an election year, and those up for election want to “scare the American people” – It does not matter if, when they run ads, or make speeches or remarks that they are stretching the truth (or outright lying) to the American people – they will say anything to get elected.

When one does read the Affordable Health Care act (sections shown below regarding Medicare, how it will become part of Medicaid, how they will remove funds from Medicare to pay for other parts of the programs), it becomes apparent that Congressman Ryan has a real plan to save Medicare and Social Security for those who are age 55 plus, and for those who are not? They will have an option – (an individual choice) of either keeping Medicare, or buying private health insurance.
Surely there is nothing wrong in that? Why would Democrats and the President up for Reelection call Paul Ryan’s very good and decent plan, something it is not? The only possible answer to that question is that they are attempting to maintain a group of voters in their pocket, while actually endangering the health and well being of that group. It should also be noted that Congressman Ryan has held these positions for some time, all this took place well before Mitt Romney was even assured he would be the GOP Presidential Nominee, nor was Paul Ryan, therefore, in consideration of any VP slot. Mitt Romney, a bit of a budget crunching, numbers man who ran Massachusetts based on fiscal restraint, while raising jobs, and trying to improve the costs and benefits of those in the states health care system, most likely chose Congressman Ryan to be his running mate because he is smart, does not duck the issues, but instead, takes on anyone, even the President of the United States, in order to try and protect his constituents.


The Paul Ryan Budget From www.paulryan.house.gov/legislation> (with a direct link to the Congressional Library)

FUNCTION SUMMARY
With the creation of Medicare in 1965, the United States made a commitment to help fund the medical care of elderly Americans without exhausting their life savings or the assets and incomes of their working children and younger relatives. In urging the creation of Medicare, President Kennedy said that such a program was chiefly needed to protect, not the poor, but people who had worked for years and suddenly found all their savings gone because of a costly health problem.
But spending for Medicare has grown quickly in recent decades--in part because of rising enrollment and in part because of rising costs per enrollee--and has reached unsustainable rates. Between 1970 and 2011, gross federal spending for Medicare rose from 0.7 percent of GDP to 3.7 percent. Under the alternative fiscal scenario in CBO's The Long-Term Budget Outlook (June 2011), mandatory spending on Medicare is projected to reach 7 percent of GDP by 2035 and 14 percent of GDP by 2085. CBO's March baseline projects that Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be bankrupt by 2022.

Medicare's imbalance threatens beneficiaries' access to quality, affordable care. The program's fundamentally flawed structure is driving up health care costs, which are, in turn, threatening to bankrupt the system--and ultimately the Nation. Without reform, the program will end up causing exactly what it was created to avoid: millions of America's seniors without adequate health security and a younger working generation saddled with enormous debts to pay for spending levels that cannot be sustained.

Letting government break its promises to current seniors and to future generations is unacceptable. In addition, placing Medicare on a sustainable path is an indispensable part of restoring the Federal Government's fiscal balance. The reforms outlined in this budget protect and preserve Medicare for those in or near retirement, while saving and strengthening the program so future generations can count on it when they retire.

The Medicare program's spending appears in Function 570 of the budget resolution. The function reflects the Medicare Part A Hospital Insurance [HI] Program, Part B Supplementary Medical Insurance [SMI] Program, Part C Medicare Advantage Program, and Part D Prescription Drug Benefit, as well as premiums paid by qualified aged and disabled beneficiaries.

The various parts of the program are financed in different ways. Part A benefits are financed primarily by a payroll tax (currently 2.9 percent of taxable earnings), the revenues from which are credited to the HI Trust Fund. For Part B, premiums paid by beneficiaries cover about one-quarter of outlays, and the Treasury General Fund covers the rest. (Payments to private insurance plans under Part C are financed by a blend of funds from Parts A and B.) Enrollees' premiums under Part D are set to cover about one-quarter of the cost of the basic prescription drug benefit, although many low-income enrollees receive larger subsidies; general funds cover most of the remaining cost.

SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE-REPORTED RESOLUTION

The resolution calls for $510 billion in budget authority and $510 billion in outlays in fiscal year 2013. Discretionary spending is $6.7 billion in budget authority and $6.6 billion in outlays in fiscal year 2013. Mandatory spending in 2013 is $503 billion in budget authority and $503 billion in outlays. The 10-year totals for budget authority and outlays are $6.5 trillion and $6.5 trillion respectively.

ILLUSTRATIVE POLICY OPTIONS

The Medicare program attempts to do two things to make sure that all seniors have secure, affordable health coverage. First, the program pools risk among a specific population of Americans, ensuring that seniors enjoy secure access to coverage. The policies supported by this budget strengthen and enhance this aspect of Medicare so seniors will have more health-care choices within the same stabilized risk pool.
Second, Medicare subsidizes coverage for seniors to ensure that coverage is affordable. Affordability is a critical goal, but the subsidy structure of Medicare is fundamentally broken and drives costs in the wrong direction. The open-ended, blank-check nature of the Medicare subsidy fuels health care inflation, threatens the solvency of the program, and creates inexcusable levels of waste in the system.
While the committees of jurisdiction will make the final determinations on specific Medicare reforms, the options described below offer one clear and reliable path toward solvency.

In the Medicare system, the Federal Government--not the patient--is the customer; and the government has been a clumsy, ineffective steward of value. Controlling costs in an open-ended fee-for-service system has proved impossible to do without limiting access or sacrificing quality. Over the program's entire history, in a vain attempt to get control of the waste in the system, Washington has made across-the-board payment reductions to providers without regard to quality or patient satisfaction. It has not worked. Costs have continued to grow, seniors continue to lose access to quality care, and the program remains on a path to bankruptcy. Absent reform, Medicare will be unable to meet the needs of current seniors and future generations.

Reform aimed at empowering individuals--with a strengthened safety net for the poor and the sick--will not only ensure the fiscal sustainability of this program, the Federal budget, and the U.S. economy, but also guarantee that Medicare can fulfill the promise of health security for America's seniors.

The Medicare reform envisioned in this budget resolution begins with a commitment to keep the promises made to those who now are in or near retirement. Consequently, for those 55 and older, the Medicare program and its benefits will remain as they are, without change.

For future retirees, the budget supports an approach known as `premium support.'
Starting in 2023, seniors (those who first become eligible by turning 65 on or after January 1, 2023) would be given a choice of private plans competing alongside the traditional fee-for-service Medicare program on a newly created Medicare Exchange. Medicare would provide a premium-support payment either to pay for or offset the premium of the plan chosen by the senior, depending on the plan's cost.

The Medicare recipient of the future would choose, from a list of guaranteed coverage options, a health plan that best suits his or her needs. This is not a voucher program; a Medicare premium-support payment would be paid, by Medicare, directly to the plan or the fee-for-service program to subsidize its cost. The program would operate in a manner similar to that of the Medicare prescription drug benefit. The Medicare premium-support payment would be adjusted so that the sick would receive higher payments if their conditions worsened; lower-income seniors would receive additional assistance to help cover out-of-pocket costs; and wealthier seniors would assume responsibility for a greater share of their premiums. Also starting in 2023, the age of eligibility for Medicare would begin to rise gradually to correspond with Social Security's retirement age.

This approach to strengthening the Medicare program--which is based on a long history of bipartisan reform plans--would ensure security and affordability for seniors now and into the future. It would set up a carefully monitored exchange for Medicare plans. Health plans that chose to participate in the Medicare Exchange would agree to offer insurance to all Medicare beneficiaries, to avoid cherry-picking and ensure that Medicare's sickest and highest-cost beneficiaries receive coverage.

While there would be no disruptions in the current Medicare fee-for-service program for those currently enrolled or becoming eligible in the next 10 years, all seniors would have the choice to opt-in to the new Medicare program once it began in 2023. This budget envisions giving seniors the freedom to choose a plan best suited for them, guaranteeing health security throughout their retirement years. It would also expand that freedom to non-retirees by giving certain employers the option to offer their employees a free choice option, smoothing the transition from their working years to when seniors become Medicare-eligible. This would enable workers to devote their employer's health coverage contribution to the purchase a health insurance plan that works best for them.

This reform also ensures affordability by fixing the currently broken subsidy system and letting market competition work as a real check on widespread waste and skyrocketing health care costs. Putting patients in charge of how their health care dollars are spent will force providers to compete against each other on price and quality.

The Democrat Rebuttal:


The Republican budget takes away important new Medicare benefits already being provided to seniors and disabled individuals through the Affordable Care Act.(From the Congressional Library)

From our current Health Care Law, the Act for “Affordable Health Care” (large PDF from www.gop.gov

(11) INTERACTION OF MEDICAID AND MEDICARE.—The Commission shall consult with MACPAC in carrying out its duties under this section, as appropriate. Responsibility for
analysis of and recommendations to change Medicare policy regarding Medicare beneficiaries, including Medicare beneficiaries who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, H. R. 3590—215 shall rest with the Commission. Responsibility for analysis of and recommendations to change Medicaid policy regarding Medicaid beneficiaries, including Medicaid beneficiaries who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, shall rest with MACPAC.

DETERMINATION OF PATIENT ASSESSMENT
INSTRUMENT.—The Secretary shall determine which patient assessment instrument (such as the Continuity Assessment Record and Evaluation (CARE) tool) shall be used under the pilot program to evaluate the applicable condition of an applicable beneficiary for purposes of determining the most H. R. 3590—283 clinically appropriate site for the provision of post-acute care to the applicable beneficiary.

(h) FUNDING.—For purposes of administering and carrying out the demonstration program, other than for payments for items H. R. 3590—290
and services furnished under this title and incentive payments under subsection (c), in addition to funds otherwise appropriated, there shall be transferred to the Secretary for the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services Program Management Account from the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund under section 1817 and
the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund under section 1841 (in proportions determined appropriate by the Secretary) $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2010 through 2015. Amounts transferred under this subsection for a fiscal year shall be available until expended. ‘