Voucherizing Medicare is more than Republican political rhetoric, it is an actual agenda item. If it weren't for President Obama in the White House the legislative majority would already have turned Medicare into a disaster.“No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine. No longer will illness crush and destroy the savings that they have so carefully put away over a lifetime so that they might enjoy dignity in their later years. No longer will young families see their own incomes, and their own hopes, eaten away simply because they are carrying out their deep moral obligations to their parents, and to their uncles, and their aunts.”
...Like in past years,(click here) the House Republican Budget would
essentially turn Medicare into a voucher program. The proposed
structure would undermine traditional fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare and
eventually render the program unsustainable. The Congressional Budget
Office (CBO) estimates that under the House Republican Budget approach,
FFS premiums will be 50 percent higher than current projections for the
traditional Medicare Part B premium. This is because, as the voucher
fails to keep up with the pace of inflation, a higher share of costs
would shift to beneficiaries over time.
Under current law, Medicare premium rates are
consistent across the country, but the House Republican Budget would
expose beneficiaries to wide variation in out-of-pocket costs. For
traditional FFS Medicare, seniors in a high-cost region in Alaska could
pay more than twice what seniors in a low-cost region in Minnesota pay –
an estimated $3,300 versus $1,500 for the same plan. Without the
affordable Medicare FFS option that the majority of seniors currently
choose to enroll in, many beneficiaries would be left with substandard
private plans. Insurers offering these plans would be incentivized to
compete on price and would do so by limiting benefits and access in
order to maintain profit margins....
This is not a hot topic. It is settled. Americans want Medicare to remain the same. Don't be afraid of it.
This is not a hot topic. It is settled. Americans want Medicare to remain the same. Don't be afraid of it.
