MEDICARE - Ryan vs Obama Plans on Cost

What I particularly like about this discussion is how Judy Woodruff splits the subject by cost to the government and cost to consumers.

"Obama vs. Ryan Plans: What Medicare Costs Are Saved, Shifted?"
PBS Newshour 4/21/2011

Excerpt from transcript

JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): Let me just quickly move on to two other things. One is how do the plans differ in terms of the number of seniors covered? Would every senior, presumably, Gail Wilensky, be able to get coverage under both the Ryan plan and the Obama plan?

GAIL WILENSKY, Project HOPE: Absolutely. They're going to get an amount of money. They're going to have private plans be available to them. The private plans will have to meet certain criteria.

The notion that people will have money, which, by the way, will increase as people get older and if they are sicker, and those who are low-income would receive additional amounts -- people who are 55 and older now would just continue on the original Medicare plan.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, there's no question that the private insurer would be available to everyone, Chris Jennings?

CHRIS JENNINGS, health policy consultant: Yes, it would be available. The question, would it be affordable, and more importantly for seniors, what would be their out-of-pocket costs?

Remember, it's not just what the insurer pays. It's what you pay out of pocket through premiums and cost-sharing. And the big concern, again, is if you double the exposure of out-of-pocket costs for seniors, when -- at a time when they have very limited incomes, you will just be finding that many of them may not even get the care that they need because they can't afford it.

Now, as my regular readers may surmise, I don't enjoy saying this; Ryan's plan for Medicare does not sound as bad as I thought. EXCEPT the "can seniors afford the out-of-pocket cost" issue.

President Obama is correct is saying that "Republicans in the House of Representatives also want to do is change our social compact in a pretty fundamental way." But in actually Republicans ALWAYS have.

Republican actions now, and in the past, speak that they do not see government (especially federal government) as having a moral responsibility to U.S. citizens. A moral responsibility that includes seeing that EVERY citizen gets healthcare, which includes affordability.

The Republican Party is the party that wants to interfere in your bedroom, who you marry, with a woman's womb, your religious practice, and more; your human and Constitutional Rights. But heaven forbid interference (in any form) with making money, especially if you are already rich or a big business. Aha, feel much better now that I've vented.