Hey, remember when this was a major campaign issue?
With all the other things we’ve discussed so far today, I wanted to return to one critical one. It’s not about mights or maybes or fears of what’s to come. It’s about what’s coming just after President-Elect Trump’s inauguration. Paul Ryan has been pushing to phase out Medicare and replace it with private insurance for several years. But now it’s real with unified Republican government. He just said he will try to rush it through early next year while repealing Obamacare.
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I’ve heard a few people say that it’s not 100% clear here that Ryan is calling for Medicare Phase Out. It is 100% clear. Ryan has a standard, openly enunciated position in favor of Medicare Phase Out. It’s on his website. It’s explained explicitly right there.
Ryan says current beneficiaries will be allowed to keep their Medicare. Says. But after the cord is cut between current and future beneficiaries, everything is fair game. For those entering the system, Ryan proposes phasing out Medicare and replacing it private insurance with subsidies to help seniors afford the private insurance. That is unquestionably what it means because that is what Ryan says. So if you’re nearing retirement and looking forward to going on Medicare, good luck. You’re going to get private insurance but you’ll get some subsidies from the government to pay the bill.
Through all the gobbledygook and bamboozlement, you’ll find this line on Ryan’s page: “For younger workers, when they become eligible, Medicare will provide a premium-support payment and a list of guaranteed coverage options – including a traditional fee-for-service option – from which recipients can choose a plan that best suits their needs.”
This means, if you haven’t gone on Medicare yet, when you do, you won’t get Medicare. You’ll get a “premium-support payment” – i.e., a check that will allow you to buy insurance from private insurers. The “support” in the phrase means it won’t cover the whole amount. And in any case, rather than Medicare you’ll have insurance from an insurance company, which everybody should love because haven’t you heard from your parents and grandparents how bummed they were when they had to give up their private insurance for Medicare?
You’ll hear lots of people calling this “reform” and other catchwords. But Medicare is a single payer, universal health care system. Replacing it with private insurance means getting rid of it. Even calling it “privatization” masks what is really afoot.
Every Democrat should be focused and talking about it volubly both as a matter of policy and politics. There isn’t much time.
Yeah, I don’t remember that being a campaign issue, either. Maybe it was discussed in one of those emails that got deleted. But there it is, whether anyone realized it or not. If you need a bit of brush-up on what that means, see here and here.
Now then. The fact that this went basically undiscussed for the last year is unfortunate, but it’s where we are. There’s no time like the present to bring it out from under a rock and shine a little light on it. TPM is on that.
DC journalists tend to think this kind of story evolves in DC. And there’s plenty to follow in Washington. But the real action happens in the states and congressional districts where members of Congress have to sell getting rid of Medicare to their constituents. And that is going to come out in local media, constituent letters, public appearances and so forth. So let us know what you are seeing where you live. In the local paper, on TV, something you hear directly from a representative or senator. Find out where your representative or senator stands on this issue. We want to know.
I’d like to know, too. I live in CD18, and I feel as close to certain as it is possible to be that Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee will not vote to “reform” Medicare. But there are 35 other members of Congress in Texas, most of them Republican. It sure would be nice to know what they think about this, and that includes the Democrats, who may claim to be as in the dark as some Republicans are now claiming to be. So why not give your member of Congress a call and ask them if they support the Ryan plan to privatize Medicare. You might point out to the Republican members that they have voted for it in the past. You might also point out that Trump himself has flipflopped on the issue and now supports it himself. Whatever answer you get, please let me know – kuff@offthekuff.com is the email address. Expect denial, ignorance, and sheer bullshit, but any answer you get is more information than we had before.
As cynical as I am about Ryan’s goals, I don’t think Trump is that interested in changing Medicare. Whether Pence views that as a priority is another story (My acting assumption is that Trump will step down or be forced from office by 2020).
I called Ted Poe’s office, and got a very evasive response, even to very direct questions about whether he supports Ryan’s proposal. The stock answer was, no legislation has been filed, so Congressman Poe does not have a position on Paul Ryan’s proposal in particular or privatizing Medicare in general. Good luck getting any better answer than this.
From the links in the post, Ted Poe did vote ‘aye’ for Ryan’s budget blueprint. The office number is 202-225-6565. SJL was a ‘no’ vote.