Rep. Paul Ryan's plan for eliminating Medicare is so full of fail that I find it hard to come up with all of them.
But I shall give it the old college try. The Fighting Aardvarks of Aardvark U are nothing if not persistent. However, I will cheerfully add any good contributions from you, constant reader.
Due to the constraints of HTML the list begins below the fold. Follow me over the interlaced squiggle!
- Medicare Advantage is very similar to the Ryan proposal. Medicare Advantage costs more to provide coverage than regular Medicare. Ryan's proposal will cost more.
- Since the government will spend less, and the cost will be more, seniors or their families will make up the difference
- Since seniors or their families will make up the difference, some people won't be able to do so. Those people will be denied needed care, and die.
- Under Medicare, pretty much any care requested by the doctor is paid for. Under the Ryan plan, claims will have to go through an insurance company bureaucrat who will be paid more if they deny more claims. Which is to they, their own self-interest is served by denying seniors treatment and medicine and devices they need. There's a phrase which describes this. It's called "death panels". Except it won't be a panel, it'll be some low paid company bureaucrat in a cubicle. And that cubicle may be in India.
- Seniors as a group are less able to fight an insurance company which denies a claim than non-seniors. Seniors with diminished capacity and no support from family or friends will have to hire someone to fight the insurance company on their behalf. In many cases this will be a nursing home, which will raise costs for everyone else in that home
- The plan creates a step change in benefits, between those who are currently aged 54 and those who are less than 54. As time wears on, one of two things will happen; either the under 54 will insist on gaining the same benefits as the over 54, or support for providing the continuing level of care for those over 54 will vanish. Rep. Ryan doubtless counts on the latter.
- The person expected to care for the seniors and disabled who need assistance or fall through the cracks will disproportionately be women. Women are also longer-lived. This is also a front in the war on women. h/t Tracker
So, let's summarize.
Health care in total will cost more. Despite this, the level of care provided will drop. As a result, some people will die. A corporate bureaucrat will decide what medical care is appropriate rather than the patient's doctor. And it creates a politically unsustainable system which will either wind up not saving the taxpayers any money, or results in those over 54 receiving the same benefit cuts as those under 54. This is intended solely and completely to transfer citizen dollars to corporations and serves no other purpose.
Some pictures in case Rep. Ryan wanders into this diary.