Text: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan Plan to End Medicare as we know It
CNN Announcer: The Paul Ryan Medicare Plan turns Medicare into a Voucher System.
Paul Krugman: The cuts to Medicare that they're proposing, replacing Medicare with a Voucher System, would in the end mean that tens of millions of older Americans would not be able to afford social essential health care.
News Reports: Independent Analyst say that Seniors would have to pay thousands more out of their pockets.
Text: Now Voters React.
Local Reporter #1: The big story here "Ryan could hurt Romney in Florida"
Local Reporter #2: His massive plan to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security doesn't play well with Florida's retirement community
Marc Caputo Miami Herald: AN AARP Poll said that people who are not retired, who are facing retirement are going to have to rely more or Medicare and Social Security than they anticipated.
Text: Romney's Response? Lie about the President's Record on Medicare
Romney: He has taken $716 Billion out of Medicare to pay for Obamacare, I'll put it back.
Text: FALSE
Reporter: It's Bogus, I hate to put a fine point on it.
Reporter 2: Benefits to Seniors actually increase under Obamacare. It reduces payments to providers in exchange for more people covered by insurance.
Text: Romney-Ryan: Using Bogus Attacks to Hide their plan to End Medicare
Finally and at last, after letting the Romney/Ryan Team Lie, and Lie, and Lie Again about the President's Medicare Plan then Duck and Dodge and Bob and Weave about their own plan - the Obama For America has produced a Web Ad that reveals and repeats the Truth.
Obama Increased Medicare Benefits.
(Even tho I posted this yesterday and was Rec'd, it bears repeating)
Obama’s cuts add eight years on the life of Medicare, according to the Congressional Budget Office, largely by reducing reimbursement rates to hospitals, prescription drugs under Medicaid and private insurance plans in Medicare Advantage. The AARP, as well as hospital and drug industries, endorsed the Affordable Care Act despite the cuts.
The cuts to Medicare Advantage plans have resulted in higher enrollment and lower average premiums in 2011 and 2012, according to official figures. Reforms closing the “doughnut hole,” which were partly funded by the cuts, have also saved seniors money on prescription drugs.
In addition, the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion offers seniors greater access to long-term care and other services that Medicare does not provide.
The Department of Health and Human Services projects that beneficiaries of traditional Medicare will save roughly $4,200 over 10 years as a result of the Affordable Care Act. HHS expects that the law will also save seniors between $3,000 and $16,000 on average on prescription drugs, depending on their costs.
Romney/Ryan - with or without the direct savings/cuts to Medicare - would Force Seniors to
Pay more and Get Less.
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.
President Obama remarks on the Romney/Ryan Plan.
President Obama:They have tried to sell us this trickle down fairy dust before. I didn't work then, it won't work now
Vyan
6:44 AM PT: This is now my 200th Lifetime Rec'd Diary on DailyKos. Glad this was the one to take me over the line.
6:55 AM PT: I hear the concerns that this is just a Web Only ad, and that's fair. I think OFA is trying to get the best bang for their buck, right now Obama is Leading in Florida by 3.1%, Ohio by 3.8%, Virginia by 2.4% and Wisconsin by 5.5% and has been for weeks. They now have this ad in place and perfectly ready to chop down to 30 seconds and load in the hopper if those numbers begin to slip. I suspect they won't need to do it, RomneyRyan as already tripping all over themselves trying to back rapidly away from their own Medicare Plans that it isn't necessary to spend money to shove another rake in their path - yet.
7:00 AM PT: One more thing, I actually don't think the primary audience for this ad is either the voters, or the media - I think the audience for this ad is ROMNEY. Obama here is calling him a "LIAR". Not that he "mislead" or that he "misspoke" or he "misstated" anything. Romney is already playing the "Angry Black Man Campaign" card - which may explain the calm almost laid-back approach of this ad - a charge which has resulted in his being called "Unhinged". The real question is just how many of Romney's gaskets is this going to blow as he gets asked over and over again about the Ryan Medicare Plan, and reporters - like Soledad O'Brien did - stop just accepting his assertions that "Obama Did it First". just how badly and clumsily will he double down on his lies then?
7:22 AM PT: At a certain point the 30 sec ad I'd like to see probably wouldn't just focus on this one subject. I'd like to see one that goes rapidly point by point over how Romney has Lied about Obama and Military Voting in Ohio, Lied about Obama and his Welfare Waivers, has Lied about Obama's Medicare Plan and Ryan's Plan, Either Lied to the SEC or the American People about when he Left Bain, Either Lied on his State Tax Returns about his Primary Residence Being in Utah or to the Massachusetts Law Review about still Living and working there, and oh yeah, Lied that he would tell ABC News whether he ever paid less than 13% in income taxes or not. (They don't even have to use all these examples, they just keep coming) Then ask one simple question:
Can we trust anything Mitt Romney Says?
BOOM, down for the count.