via NYT
Mitt Romney‘s campaign signaled that it intended to fight rather than run from Democratic attacks over Republican Medicare policies, unveiling a new ad that stresses that President Obama cut $700 billion from the program.
This is not there primary play - this is their
Only Play to Inoculate Paul Ryan on Medicare by blasting Obama for "Gutting Medicare".
They put this on just today even as Soledad O'Brien slapped John "Birther Protectorate Commander" Sununu down like a limp rag doll on this point.
The GOP says the Obama "Stole" money that Paul Ryan would take - and keep also. Money that the Entire Republican House Has Already Voted Take out of Medicare - but somehow were supposed to believe Mitt Romney will Save Medicare from Obama by implementing the "Premium Support" plan?
Well, besides the point that they are just. flat. out. lying. about the $716 Billion in Medicare Savings - just what is it that we're supposed to truly expect from the grand "Premium Support" plan from the Romney/Ryan Team?
What do Doctors Think about Premium Support?
1. Myth: Private health insurance is more efficient than Medicare. Fact: Medicare has controlled costs better than private insurance and has much lower administrative overhead. According to CMS, Medicare spending rose by an average of 4.6 percent each year between 1997 and 2009, while private insurance premiums grew at a rate of 6.7 percent each year.
2. Myth: Expanding private plans in Medicare will reduce Medicare’s costs. Fact: Private Medicare Advantage plans have raised Medicare costs. Private insurers profit by selectively enrolling the healthy and shunning the sick, as documented in a New England Journal of Medicine article subtitled “The healthy go in and the sick go out.”
3. Myth: Premium support will reduce Medicare’s costs. Fact: Premium support plans don’t reduce costs, they shift them onto the patient. ... The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Ryan proposal would more than double out-of-pocket costs for the typical 65 year old Medicare beneficiary in 2022 from $5,630 to $12,500.
4. Myth: Competition among private plans will control costs. Fact: Private plans profit by competing to enroll the healthy and shun the sick. The industry is so consolidated that there is no effective competition in most regions of the country.
5. Myth: Paying private plans in Medicare via “competitive bidding” will lower costs. Fact: There’s no evidence for this.
6. Myth: Premium support will increase choice for seniors: Fact: Premium support will decrease choice for seniors.
7. Myth: Competition among private insurers will reduce administrative costs. Fact: Premium support will likely boost administrative costs since patients will move from the low-overhead traditional Medicare program to private plans with far higher overhead.
8. Myth: There are no alternatives to reduce Medicare spending besides premium support. False: There are many better options for reducing Medicare spending, including the 9 listed below.
.Eliminate Medicare Advantage plans.
.Give Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices.
.Eliminate private Part D plans, which have high overhead, and replace them with a public drug benefit along traditional Medicare principles
.Proscribe participation by for-profit providers, and mandate that participating providers (like hospitals) not pay any individual more than the president of the U.S.
9. Myth: Medicare is already a single payer system. Fact: Currently Medicare is only one payer among thousands of different plans. Only a true single payer covering the entire population can slash administrative costs, implement effective cost-control methods like globally budgeting hospitals, negotiating fees, and doing real health planning with teeth to reduce the costly and dangerous proliferation of expensive high-tech facilities
10. Myth: Premium support will provide all seniors with the security that quality, affordable coverage will always be there. False: Premium support eliminates traditional Medicare with its defined benefits and substitutes a fixed contribution that, over time, will cover less care.
That's not exactly a ringing endorsement.
Vyan