Question: How does Wally Herger's vote for Paul Ryan's Budget actually END Medicare for his constituents?
Answer: In the words of Paul Krugman, Vouchercare Is Not Medicare
Start with the claim that the G.O.P. plan simply reforms Medicare rather than ending it. I’ll just quote the blogger Duncan Black, who summarizes this as saying that “when we replace the Marines with a pizza, we’ll call the pizza the Marines.” The point is that you can name the new program Medicare, but it’s an entirely different program — call it Vouchercare — that would offer nothing like the coverage that the elderly now receive. (Republicans get huffy when you call their plan a voucher scheme, but that’s exactly what it is.)
Medicare is a government-run insurance system that directly pays health-care providers. Vouchercare would cut checks to insurance companies instead. Specifically, the program would pay a fixed amount toward private health insurance — higher for the poor, lower for the rich, but not varying at all with the actual level of premiums. If you couldn’t afford a policy adequate for your needs, even with the voucher, that would be your problem.
Question: Specifically, what would ending MediCare and replacing it with Vouchercare mean for residents of California's Second District?
Answer: According to the Committee on Energy and Commerce's District by District Impact of Republican Medicare Plan and Medicaid Cuts, broken down by California's Second Congressional District, the Republican's budget would have adverse impacts on seniors and disabled individuals in the district who are currently enrolled in Medicare.
Adverse Impacts for California's Second District
Republicans have claimed that the Ryan budget would only affect those 54 and younger. But not so fast-- here's how seniors already on MediCare would suffer:
Increase prescription drug costs for 8,500 Medicare beneficiaries in the district who enter the Part D donut hole, forcing them to pay an extra $84 million for drugs over the next decade and
Eliminate new preventive care benefits for 124,000 Medicare beneficiaries in the district.
If you're 54 or younger here's what the Paul Ryan budget will cost you:
Deny 520,000 individuals age 54 and younger in the district access to Medicare’s guaranteed benefits.
Increase the out-of-pocket costs of health coverage by over $6,000 per year in 2022 and by almost $12,000 per year in 2032 for the 109,000 individuals in the district who are between the ages of 44 and 54.
Require the 109,000 individuals in the district between the ages of 44 and 54 to save an additional $25.5 billion for their retirement – an average of $182,000 to $287,000 per individual – to pay for the increased cost of health coverage over their lifetimes. Younger residents of the district will have to save even higher amounts to cover their additional medical costs.
Raise the Medicare eligibility age by at least one year to age 66 or more for 59,000 individuals in the district who are age 44 to 49 and by two years to age 67 for 408,000 individuals in the district who are age 43 or younger.
To calculate the costs to your own Congressional District, check out this Interactive Map by Congressional District.
Contact Wally Herger's office and ask him: WHY DID YOU VOTE TO END MEDICARE?
Contact Info:
Washington Office • 242 Cannon HOB • Washington, DC 20515 • phone: (202) 225-3076 • fax: (202) 226-0852
Chico Office • 2595 Ceanothus Ave #182 • Chico, CA 95973 • phone: (530) 893-8363 • fax: (530) 893-8619
Redding Office • 280 Hemsted Drive, Suite 105 • Redding, CA 96002 • phone: (530) 223-5898 • fax: (530) 223-5897