Biden: “Romney will implement Medicare vouchers” – Obama pilots voucher plan already!
In Ohio during an appearance yesterday, Vice President Joe Biden claimed the GOP Medicare plan would result in a bankrupt program by 2016 and become “vouchercare” where those on the plan would be on their own to use a voucher to find insurance.
Biden said this, and note he includes the phrase “buy Medicare.”
“They’re going to give you a voucher, which is essentially a coupon, and it’s going to be worth x-amount of dollars, and they’re going to say to your mom, ‘Mom go out there in that insurance market and bargain for the best deal you can get, including if you want to buy Medicare,’” he said. “If you’re going to cost more to get the benefits you’re now getting, they say, ‘Mom go borrow it somewhere.’ No, I’m serious, you’ve got to take it out of your pocket. Ladies and gentleman, that’s not fair and that’s not truthful. What they’ve told you is not on the level.”
The Romney camp responded to CNN via email. I don’t know what was included in the full email, but CNN and Biden side-step the fact traditional Medicare remains an option under the Romney/Ryan plan. Read this page. I get the impression you have to opt-in to an alternative plan, or you stay in traditional Medicare by default.
That said – and here is the important part of this post – Ed Morrissey pointed out yesterday that President Obama’s Health and Human Services Department is forcing 2 million seniors out of traditional Medicare programs into private health insurance plans overseen by the states during a pilot program. They will have to opt-out if they do not want to participate.
Read the vague overview release with a bunch of links and information from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (federal government site). National Journal breaks it down…
In his convention speech in Charlotte, President Obama vowed to block the Republican Medicare reform plan because “no American should ever have to spend their golden years at the mercy of insurance companies.”
But back in Washington, his Health and Human Services Department is launching a pilot program that would shift up to 2 million of the poorest and most-vulnerable seniors out of the federal Medicare program and into private health insurance plans overseen by the states.
The administration has accepted applications from 18 states to participate in the program, which would give states money to purchase managed-care plans for people who are either disabled or poor enough to qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid. HHS approved the first state plan, one for Massachusetts, last month.
Back to Morrissey, who points out this plan is being set up for the poorest of those who depend on both Medicare and Medicaid.
Bear in mind that Ryan’s plan made the vouchers optional; seniors could choose the traditional government-run Medicare plan or opt for a private insurance plan from a federal exchange of approved insurers. Ryan also allows all seniors to choose, and didn’t force the poorest seniors to take the voucher option. Not only will Obama push just the poorest seniors into this plan, in some states they’d have to know to opt back in to traditional Medicare.
As usual, the Obama political machine is saying one thing – private insurance companies are bad and will screw you so we’ll (the government) will take care of you – while all along knowing private insurance companies will be able to provide better service, with higher quality at a lower cost … so they have to pilot the programs quietly.
Update: Big Government picked up on this bit of hypocrisy.
20 Comments
The website's content and articles were migrated to a new framework in October 2023. You may see [shortcodes in brackets] that do not make any sense. Please ignore that stuff. We may fix it at some point, but we do not have the time now.
You'll also note comments migrated over may have misplaced question marks and missing spaces. All comments were migrated, but trackbacks may not show.
The site is not broken.
The Democrats think they are slick using Biden to decry the use of vouchers while they quietly slip 2 million Seniors onto a voucher system. Joe’s just making smoke, again.
?
Is the voucher system designed to fail or will the forcibly moved Medicare recipients actually be better off in the long run? Private insurers have everything to gain by treating these 2 million test subjects very well.
?
But Biden? LOL! When Biden walks into the Senate, they should play “Fool on the Hill” for him.
These Chicago gangsters make me sick to my stomach!
?
ERIC, TRY NOT TO GET SICK UNTIL OBUMMERCARE KICKS IN!
?no American should ever have to spend their golden years at the mercy of insurance companies.?
?
As though being subject to the tender ministrations of the government is better.? Say what you will about private insurance, they can back up their decisions with experience, statistics and precedent.? The government is pretty much reduced to backing up their schemes with fear, uncertainty and doubt, topped off with a big dollop of incompetence and outright stupidity.?? Let Great Britain be your guide: look up the “Liverpool care pathway” and see where ?bamacare leads.
I’d say you have not had personal experiences with Medicare or the British health system. Many had and have, and are satisfied with them.
I’d say I have four families of relatives that do, and are not satisfied with them.?
?
I would also say you didn’t look up Liverpool Care Pathway” and associated cases.
And I can name six personal friends that I speak with at least monthly who are not happy with the British, Canadian and Bahamian health care systems (the six are either tied to one or two of the systems). All six of them had the means to go to the United States for treatment for minor to major issues. ALL of them did just that. But of course, you consider my information ‘hearsay.’ By the way, I’ve had a few personal health care experiences in the Bahamas. I was told by the expats and the locals to avoid the national health system, and head for the private hospital. I did just that.
As I thought: you’re reporting hearsay.
We all have stories, don’t we? I have stories of Canadians, Brits, but no Bahamanians who are happy with their health care system. I also have good personal experiences with a “national health care system”. How does this advance the case for a health care system in the US, which is considered dysfunctional, to say the least, by a sizable number of people?
So multiple examples from people directly acquainted with these systems are dismissed as “anecdotal” by you, but your singular experience trumps them??? So “anecdotal” stories are only conservative in your considered opinion, right?
?
The fact that the privileged few from these countries with a national health care system choose to come here for treatment speaks to which system is more dysfunctional.? And we have yet to find out who actually wrote the legislation for ?bamacare.? Clearly, the clods that voted for it without even reading it and haven’t a real clue as to what is in it didn’t do it.
?
And I have yet to hear your assessment of the Liverpool care pathway.? Even if you think it is “anecdotal”…
Anecdotal experiences are a wash? whether conservatives or not. Obamacare will lead to Obamacare and not to the British system or other system: we own it. The issue I have with our system is not about the quality of the medical care/treatments. The issue is with how, who and how much is paid for that care/treatments. That distinction is seldom addressed, hence the anecdotes.
It isn’t “how much”, it is “who’s paying”.? You will find that these single payer systems are consuming their GDPs.? Look at Sweden, considered the epitome of the state run single payer system and the problems it has run into http://oldfraser.lexi.net/publications/books/health_reform/sweden.html
To repeat: Obamacare is Obamacare and we own it. It is not the British nor the Swedish nor anybody else’s health care program. If others blew it, we should learn from their mistakes.
NOW you are getting to the crux of the problem: rather than learn from the obvious mistakes of our European friends, one party rammed through a homage to their mistakes, mindlessly duplicating the problems they are now trying to extricate themselves from.? The Dems own it; they are just forcing us to take it, like Arizona oceanfront property.
?
The time to learn from mistakes is BEFORE you write/pass the legislation.
?
You own it too. Obamacare passed, it’s the law, the SCOTUS declared it constitutional. You can stay in denial, but life moves on. That is the crux of the problem.
Own it under duress, you mean.? For an administration that espouses selective prosecution of laws, defunding or just ignoring ?bamacare might be following in that precedent.?? Gut it before the major parts become active in 2014, and the problem is solved.? That isn’t denial: it is a new set of circumstances.?
?
Improvise, adapt, overcome.
Good luck to that.
It beats rolling over on your back.? Or is it “leaning forward”?