Um. Yeah. About that
premium support, also from the NYT...just not someone like Pear who's on the RNC payroll.
Republican politicians are touting the virtues of market competition and calling for a “premium support” plan that would give beneficiaries a set amount of money to shop among private plans for their own insurance. What they do not say is that private plans have long been more costly than traditional Medicare and have shown far less ability to slow spending. Nor do they admit that the most extreme versions of premium support — like the one championed by Representative Paul Ryan — would save the government money mainly by shifting costs to the beneficiaries, who would have to decide whether to forgo treatments or pay more for coverage.
The Massachusetts health care reforms already provide premium support to help low- and middle-income people buy private policies on an exchange. Unlike the Ryan plan, the program guarantees everyone a defined, comprehensive set of benefits, and officials bargain aggressively with private plans to keep their premiums down. As a result, annual cost increases have been held well below the premium increases for other private group insurance providing comparable benefits.
Versions of premium support backed by Congressman Ryan and other conservatives have one primary goal: pushing down growth in federal spending on Medicare, even if it means that beneficiaries have to pay far more for coverage. These proposals tie increases in premium support to indexes, like the gross domestic product or the consumer price index, that historically have risen far more slowly than health care costs.
Finally, and most important (although lilMike failed to mention this
):
The Congressional Budget Office concluded that the Ryan plan would force new enrollees in 2022 to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket for benefits similar to those currently provided by Medicare.
Side note: I cannot fathom why lilMike's still enthralled with the Ryan Plan. Most of the republicans have even rejected it.
