The Straight Poop On Paul Ryan's Crappy Plan To Kill Medicare

Paul Ryan has been criss-crossing the country preaching his plan to "save Medicare" for older Americans by repealing Obamacare, which he claims the President paid for by cutting $700 billion from Medicare. 

The truth is that while President Obama did cut some $716 billion from Medicare spending it was done to keep Medicare solvent - And that Paul Ryan's budget also calls for $700 billion in cuts to Medicare, but not in advantage to Medicare recipients, but rather to the advantage of the insurance companies.

Here is how the President's Affordable Care Act (ACA) keeps Medicare solvent by making $700 billion in cuts to the program:

• Phasing down payments to Medicare Advantage plans
• Reducing updates in payment levels to hospitals and other providers, and increasing premiums to be paid by higher-income beneficiaries
• Closing the coverage gap in the Part D prescription drug “doughnut hole”
• Including incentives to reduce preventable hospital readmissions and establish accountable care organizations (ACOs)
• Establishes new sources of revenue dedicated to the Medicare program, including an additional payroll tax on earnings of higher-income workers and a fee on the manufacturers and importers of branded drugs.

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While Romney and Ryan are promising to secure Medicare for the elderly, the right-wingers who are about to vote them in simply do not even believe in Medicare of Medicaid. So my question is, "Why would the GOP want to save Medicare if they don't believe in it?" The answer: They won't save Medicare or Medicaid, but rather they will de-fund it to death.

The conservative-leaning Kaiser Family Foundation just released a study that may put the nail in the coffin for the Romney/Ryan Ticket in 2012. The study shows that under their plan to repeal President Obama's Affordable Care Act, Medicare will become insolvent by 2016, leaving millions of senior citizens without government coverage and without laws to ensure that a company has to even offer health insurance.

If Romney is elected and repeals the Affordable Care Act, the law’s savings and revenue provisions would be reversed, seniors will pay more,  and Medicare will be dead by 2016 - Here is how it will go down:

• Medicare savings provisions provided by the ACA that would have reduced spending by $716 billion from 2013 to 2022 will be null and void.
• Part A deductible and co-payments would rise for seniors
• Part B premiums for seniors would increase automatically set to cover 25 percent of spending
• An estimated 3.6 million Medicare Part D beneficiaries, who would have otherwise benefited from provisions to close the doughnut hole in Medicare would see on average a $600 increase in drug costs.
• Coverage of free preventive benefits would be eliminated, thereby increasing
  beneficiary out-of-pocket spending for these services.
• Medicare will become insolvent by 2016, leaving millions of senior citizens without insurance and without laws to ensure their ability to find insurance.

So in essence, Romney and Ryan are lying to the people as they go town to town telling them that they are saving their Medicare. Why? Because old people love Medicare and could literally not live without it in many cases. Before Medicare was enacted in 1966 more than 50% of all seniors had no health coverage and 35% lived in poverty - Today, under Medicare, virtually every senior is covered and only 8.9% live in poverty.

Seniors do NOT want to lose Medicare, but the Romney/Ryan ticket is the death blow to Medicare itself. Now the question is, will people wake up and realize that the wool has been pulled over their eyes in time for November 6th?

God, I hope so...

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And just in case Americans are reading the papers (or this blog) and are becoming aware of the GOP plan to defund Medicare, Paul Ryan is putting out a series of "VoucherCare" coupons that will be coming in October's ValPak.

Above, in the photo section of my blog is a sneak peak of Paul Ryan's VoucherCare coupons that you can expect: