Now until we have the specifics a few items have come to light and it seems that Republicans are going to try to privatize and voucherize Medicare/Medicaid.
Dr. Paul Krugman had this to say about what we know initially:
More when we have some details. But two key points:
Ezra Klein talks a bit about it as well this morning:1. Privatizing and voucherizing Medicare does nothing whatsoever to control costs. We’ve seen that from the sorry history of Medicare Advantage. I’m sure that the Republicans will claim savings — but those savings will come entirely from limiting the vouchers to below the rate of rise in health care costs; in effect, they will come from denying medical care to those who can’t afford to top up their premiums.
Oh, and for all those older Americans who voted GOP last year because those nasty Democrats were going to cut Medicare, I have just one word: suckers!
The House GOP’s 2012 budget, prepared by Rep. Paul Ryan, will privatize Medicare, block grant Medicaid, and cost $4 trillion over a decade, reports Naftali Bendavid: “Republicans will present this week a 2012 budget proposal that would cut more than $4 trillion from federal spending projected over the next decade and transform the Medicare health program for the elderly, a move that will dramatically reshape the budget debate in Washington...The plan would essentially end Medicare, which now pays most of the health-care bills for 48 million elderly and disabled Americans, as a program that directly pays those bills...Mr. Ryan’s proposal would apply to those currently under the age of 55, and for those Americans would convert Medicare into a ‘premium support’ system...The proposal would also convert Medicaid, the health program for the poor, into a series of block grants to give states more flexibility.”First they targeted unions, now they come for the social safety net.
Targeting those who are the most vulnerable is the means and the ends of the modern Republican Party.
-Cheers
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