The effort to reform Medicare has set off a mad scramble among Republicans and Democrats to paint the other party as out to destroy a program relied on by senior citizens, the nation’s most dependable voters. Democrats grabbed the political upper hand this month by denouncing a new Republican 2012 budget blueprint proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., which tackles Medicare spending, in part, by gradually raising the eligibility age to 69. Ryan’s plan would convert Medicare so that the money would be used by seniors to buy private health insurance.
President Obama has repeatedly blasted the Republican plan, saying it “ends Medicare as we know it,” and requires senior citizens to eventually pay thousands more a year in medical care than they would under today’s Medicare.
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House and Senate Democrats have also piled on, and on Wednesday a Democratic group established to help the party retake the House majority began running radio ads against 10 Republicans who voted last week in favor of Ryan’s budget plan.
“Just days ago, Sean Duffy voted for the Republican budget plan that’s going to have the wealthiest Americans lining up at the trough,” says one ad targeting the GOP freshman representing Wisconsin’s 7th District. “While Duffy’s budget leaves the wealthy fat and happy, it puts the squeeze on Wisconsin families, and will end Medicare as we know it. That’s right, end Medicare as we know it.”
Democrats have successfully turned the GOP’s Medicare reform plan into a political weapon, Joseph Antos, a health care and retirement scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told The Washington Examiner.
“Democrats don’t even have to talk about their plan,” Antos said. “All they have to do is talk about an extreme version of what’s wrong with cutting Medicare.”
Ryan, Antos said, “did stick his neck out,” by proposing the changes to Medicare.
Obama this week began a three-state tour to tout his own deficit-cutting budget proposal, barely touching on his own controversial plans for cutting Medicare costs while further knocking the Republican proposal. Under Obama’s plan, Medicare would be reined in by reducing the growth of the program and empowering a 15-member Medicare board to recommend cost-cutting measures.
Overall, Obama said he would shave nearly $500 billion off of the entitlement program’s cost.
Republicans, meanwhile, are trying to stir opposition to Obama’s plan, which they say would result in rationing of medical care by a politically appointed group.
They want to put a spotlight on the plan by forcing the Obama administration to provide more details as to how the plan would achieve such massive savings.
The GOP chairmen of two major House panels on Wednesday sent a letter to the administration asking for “additional clarification so that we can fully understand and evaluate the new Medicare proposals you have put forward.”
Antos said the political fights about Medicare will likely end with not major changes to the program, at least until the 2012 elections are over.
“What this kind of dialogue says is politicians are simply not prepared to deal with this problem,” Antos said.
