Is the Ryan Medicare Overhaul Proposal a Good Idea? >
Ryan Plan Turns Medicare's Promises Into Real Dollars, Not IOUs
Ryan's plan gives seniors the right to make their own choices
August 17, 2012
About Nina Owcharenko:
Nina Owcharenko is the director of the Heritage Foundation's Center for Health Policy Studies.
With more than $37 trillion in unfunded obligations and 77 million baby boomers set to enter retirement, Medicare is facing a fiscal and demographic tsunami. Even President Barack Obama has conceded that Medicare will not be there for future retirees unless it is reformed. Rep. Paul Ryan's plan for Medicare is the best way to get the program out of the storm and is far better than the president's plan for Medicare. Here's why:
It ensures the government can meet its obligations to today's seniors and tomorrow's by turning its promises into real dollars, not worthless IOUs. It gives seniors the right to make their own choices, instead of the government making choices for them. It builds on what works—Medicare Advantage and the prescription drug benefit. Health plans, now including the traditional government plan, would compete for seniors' business based on price and benefits.
[See a collection of political cartoons on the budget and deficit.]
Obama's plan, on the other hand, takes more than $700 billion out of Medicare not to shore up Medicare's fiscal obligations, but to pay for his massive new health program.
His Medicare plan has the government in charge of deciding services and benefits. It depends on government price controls to squeeze more dollars out of Medicare, and empowers an unelected government board to make more Medicare cuts. By ratcheting down on payments to Medicare providers, it jeopardizes access to care for today's seniors by driving hospitals and doctors out of business—and leaves tomorrow's seniors with empty promises.
There is no way around it. Medicare needs change not only to prepare for the next generation of seniors but to find a way to put this program on better fiscal footing. Refreshingly, Representative Ryan's Medicare plan does just that.
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- Other Arguments
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#112052
No — Ryan's plan would destroy healthcare security for the middle class
ETHAN ROME, Executive Director of Health Care for America Now
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#26258
Yes — Overhauling Medicare will help restore solvency to the federal government while improving healthcare
JAMES CAPRETTA, Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center
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#43959
Yes — Medicare reform needs to address underlying causes of rampant healthcare spending to control it
JOSEPH ANTOS, Wilson H. Taylor Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute
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#43454
Yes — The Ryan plan isn't perfect, but the country might well go broke without it
MICHAEL D. TANNER, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute
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#62647
No — Medicare reform is too politically risky for Republicans
JAMIE CHANDLER, Political Scientist at Hunter College
