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GOP’s Medicare proposal draws ire
town hall attendees urged to oppose plan
YOUNGSTOWN
The Gathering Room at Park Vista of Youngstown was filled with mostly older people, many of whom said they are concerned and angered by the Republican attempt to privatize Medicare.
“This thing is about making Barack Obama a one-term president,” one woman said of the Republican plan.
“Obama can’t stop this by himself. We don’t have a lot of money, but we do have voices and we have to make them heard by Congress and the president,” she said during a Medicare Town Hall meeting Tuesday conducted by U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th.
The budget plan introduced by U.S. Rep. Paul D. Ryan, R-Wisconsin, chairman of the House Budget Committee, contains fundamental changes in Medicare as people know it today, said Ohio’s Tim Ryan, who drew laughter when he said: “I’m not that Ryan.”
The Republican plan passed the House and will be coming up for a vote in the Senate. If passed there, it will land on Obama’s desk to be signed or vetoed.
When a man asked Ryan if he thought the president would stand firm against the Republic plan, Ryan said he is certain that Obama would veto the measure should it pass in the Senate.
But Ryan’s message Tuesday was that people need to stand up themselves and organize petition drives opposing the Republican plan and write letters to Ohio’s senators, Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican Rob Portman, letting them know their feelings on the Republican budget and the changes in health care and Medicare it proposes.
Ryan said the Republican budget includes provisions that are in essence an “end run to privatize and dismantle Medicare as we know it.”
Under the Republican plan, only for people now 55 or younger, the traditional Medicare program, which has defined benefits, would cease to exist starting in 2022. At that time, it would be converted to a defined-contribution program under which participants would receive a voucher with which to purchase private health insurance.
According to the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis, the Republican plan would more than double the typical annual out-of-pocket health-care spending in 2022 from $6,000 to about $12,500, Ryan said.
Not only would it cost more, it would require seniors to shop for health insurance themselves, which can be a complicated and confusing process, he said.
Also, he said, the federal contribution toward the purchase of private health insurance by future Medicare beneficiaries would be tied to the Consumer Price Index, which rises about 2 percent a year and does not keep up with the increase in health-care costs, which he said are 5 percent or 6 percent annually.
“Obviously, the Medicare issue is very, very personal. We all rely on it in one way or another, either as participants or for someone in our family,” Ryan said.
“Changes need to be made in Medicare, and I’m ready to talk about fixes, but dismantling the system is not the answer,” Ryan said.