While they try to muddy the waters and claim they won't cut anyone's benefits, or no one over 55, a newly leaked GOP document for their platform shows otherwise:
"In a leaked party platform circulating on the eve of their convention, Republicans reveal in candid detail how they intend to remake Medicare."
"The platform, snagged by Politico on Friday afternoon after the Republican National Committee accidentally posted it to its website before taking it down, is scheduled to be approved at the convention early this week."
"The text details the privatization policy that GOP lawmakers have supported for years, and that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are selling as necessary to “save” Medicare. But in an unusual twist, it addresses the specific aspect of the proposal that makes it a departure from what Americans know as “Medicare.”
“The first step is to move the two programs [Medicare and Medicaid] away from their current unsustainable defined-benefit entitlement model to a fiscally sound defined-contribution model,” the draft platform reads. “While retaining the option of traditional Medicare in competition with private plans, we call for a transition to a premium-support model for Medicare, with an income-adjusted contribution toward a health plan of the enrollee’s choice. This model will include private health insurance plans that provide catastrophic protection, to ensure the continuation of doctor-patient relationships.”
"The esoteric language gets to the heart of the change that ends the basic structure of Medicare. Since its inception in 1965, Medicare has been a government-run insurance program that directly pays medical bills for the elderly per their needs (i.e. “defined benefit”). Republicans want to turn it into a partially privatized system that pays seniors a fixed amount to buy their own health insurance (i.e. “defined contribution”).
“Under the defined contribution approach envisaged by the Rivlin-Ryan plan [a proposal that’s remarkably similar to Romney’s], most of the risk of future health-care cost increases would be shifted onto the shoulders of Medicare beneficiaries,” Uwe Reinhardt, a health policy expert at Princeton University, said last year. “This feature makes the proposal radical.”
"The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has found that the plan will raise seniors’ out-of-pocket medical expenses by thousands of dollars, a fact Democrats hasten to point out. The draft Republican platform claims that the competition among private insurance plans will lead to major cost savings, though little evidence exists to support this argument."
"Unlike the first Ryan budget unveiled in 2011, the Romney-Ryan plan seeks to mitigate some of the potential adverse effects of privatization by including the option for seniors to buy into a government-run plan with their voucher. Under the Romney-Ryan plan, the value of the voucher, as long as it doesn’t exceed a certain level, adjusts to cover the cost of the second-cheapest policy on a competitive insurance exchange.
By contrast, President Obama wants to preserve Medicare’s defined benefit structure by introducing efficiencies into the program and by setting up an independent panel of Senate-confirmed experts to cut reimbursement rates to providers if per-beneficiary expenses exceed per-capita GDP plus 0.5 percent — a budget cap that Ryan also establishes in his blueprint."
"Echoing a Romney campaign plank, the Republican platform also champions an increase in the eligibility age — currently 65 — for those who aren’t about to retire."
“Without disadvantaging retirees or those nearing retirement,” it reads, “the age of eligibility for Medicare must be made more realistic in terms of today’s longer life span.”
"RNC spokespersons didn’t immediately respond to queries about whether the Medicare language would be altered before final approval."
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/republican-party-platform-medicare.php?ref=fpb
This part in the 2012 GOP plank will be voted on by Republican delegates. I should add that there won't be any money in the system once you create a second tier of voucher beneficiaries the whole thing will fall apart. As Medicare only works by having the young pay for the old, if the young are gone the system will be bankrupted for the old. And the traditional Medicare option will not really be there for anyone either as if it's more than the cheapest private insurer, you have to make up the difference yourself.
Be interesting to see if Anderson Cooper can stop tut-tutting about Debbie Wasserman-Schultz long enough to question if maybe the Republicans have told some lies that deserve his attention and whether Jim Costa finally gives up making Joe Biden "chains" references and considers what a monumental development this is. At least no one can claim that it's not the Ryan plan that is the agenda of the whole party, including Romney.
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