Neither political party is very clear about the effects of Paul Ryan's Medicare Plan. The Republicans are not explaining it well, while the Democrats are just plain demogoging and lying about it. So let's try to clear up a few things with actual facts.
FACT 1: Medicare will become insolvent in 13 years if something is not done to correct it.
FACT 2: Medicare can and will bankrupt the U.S. if not fixed. Long before 2024, Medicare costs will exceed $1 trillion per year.
FACT 3: More and more doctors and clinics are refusing to take Medicare patients. Within a few years, your Medicare card will look nice in your wallet, but will not help you when you need medical care. What good is Medicare if you cannot find a doctor who will accept it?
Some facts about the Ryan Plan:
FACT 1: No elderly people will lose any benefits. Nothing changes for any person 55 or older.
FACT 2: People 54 and under will be subsidized to obtain insurance to help replace Medicare. You will not have to worry about not being able to find a doctor who will take Medicare patients, resulting in better access to care.
FACT 3: Yes, if 54 or under, your med care will be a bit more expensive to you, personally. But you will not lose medical coverage, and you will not be turned away because the doctors won't take Medicare
FACT 4: Excuse me for saying this, but the Democrats have spent two years trying to con us into thinking Obamacare will cover us. If that is true, you would be covered, anyway, regardless of Ryan's Plan, so why are they demogoging?
So, we know Medicare needs to be fixed. The question is - HOW?
The Democrats want to tax us more, to continue paying for a failing system. The Republicans want to reform the system, itself.
So here are a few more facts:
FACT 1: Higher taxes will stifle growth - at a time when it would extend the recession, or even cause a worse economic situation. If you take every penny the rich earn, it would not be enough to pay the bills.
FACT 2: Higher taxes are only a bandaid - medical costs keep escalating. This means that taxes would have to keep rising as well, year after year. It would not be a one-time increase. And the problem still exists - it has not been dealt with. It has only been put off until the next tax increase. Just kickin' the can down the road...
FACT 3: Under Ryan's Plan, NO cuts are made to Medicare. None. The Democrat's ObamaCare, on the other hand, cuts $500 billion from Medicare, according to their own words, and backed up by the CBO.
FACT: It is estimated that billions are wasted in Medicare fraud every year. That will end when Ryan's Plan results in medical care being transferred to insurance companies instead of Medicare.
So, the short take...
The Democrat solution is to do nothing about the problem, and to hike taxes to "cover up" the problem. Even Bill Clinton says that is a very bad idea. Those ever-increasing taxes will cost you far more out of pocket than any extra costs for medical care under Ryan's plan. So Ryan's Plan would save you money, insure you can still find a doctor, and put the financial heath of the nation back on solid ground. The Democrat plan would cause more doctors to bail out of Medicare while picking your pocket by another $1500-$6,000 per year in taxes, depending on your income.
Even worse - according to the IRS, 47% of all working Americans pay NO taxes. The rest of us will have to cover the whole bill, giving half the country a free ride. How does that help anything?
The Ryan Plan is not perfect, but it is certainly far better than the "no plan" of the Democrats. And the Ryan Plan can be perfected over time. Medicare cannot be, simply because no government entitlement can ever be made effective or efficient. Effectiveness and efficiency are products of capitalist competition. The government has no competition to force efficiency.
Democrats have put out a dishonest commercial that shows Republicans throwing Granny over a cliff by "eliminating" Medicare. First, Ryan's plan does not eliminate Medicare, nor does it affect Granny in any way. But I can tell you this - if something is not done to fix Medicare - if Democrats have their way and do nothing - then it will be Democrats who are really throwing Granny off the cliff, because the current system is not sustainable - and everyone knows it.
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