Wendell Potter, the CIGNA whistleblower, gets what's so dangerous about the Paul Ryan plan to privatize Medicare. Here's his article over at The Huffington Post:
Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, wants to dismantle the Medicare program and replace it with a system of vouchers. Starting in 2022, the government would give the average 65-year-old Medicare beneficiary $8,000 a year to buy coverage from a private insurer. That's the amount health care analysts estimate will be what the Medicare program will spend on every 65-year-old in 2022 if the government doesn't turn it over to private insurance companies.
While that might sound fair on the surface, it would actually be a very bad deal for people who turn 65 that year, compared to those who turn 65 in 2021. That's because commercial insurance plans are much more expensive, and operate far less efficiently, than the current Medicare program.
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The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says the $8,000 voucher won't be nearly enough for seniors to buy comparable coverage from private insurers and pay the additional out-of-pocket costs that those insurers would require them to pay. The amount the average 65-year-old would have to shell out to buy private insurance in 2022, according to the CBO, will actually be $20,510. Seniors would have to pay the difference -- $12,510. If Medicare is not privatized, the difference would be $6,150.
Here's why this would be a dream-come-true for the insurance industry: The more health plan enrollees have to pay out of their own pockets, the less insurers have to pay for medical care. The money that insurers avoid paying out in claims goes straight to their bottom line -- and into shareholders' pockets.
To put it simply, the Ryan plan to privatize Medicare would have devastating consequences for our elderly, jeopardize what little financial stability they have left, and put them at the mercy of private insurance companies.
That's what these Republicans stand for when they say they support the Ryan plan. They support real insurance death panels for our seniors, financial bloodsucking out of their retirement security by insurers, and medical decisions to be made by these insurers.
They really don't care about seniors. These Republicans just want to prey on our elderly by making them think that Democrats are for Medicare cuts when the biggest issue is the privatization and the overpayments we're making to the insurance boondoggle that is Medicare Advantage.
They've succeeded in muddling the issue enough to confuse seniors into voting against Democrats in 2010. Hopefully Democrats will keep on seizing the Ryan plan as the gift it is in getting back the senior vote for 2012, and to expand the House majority while retaining the Senate majority.
If you know of a Republican that backs the Ryan plan, let's draw a list of them up here in the comments below. I have an idea that I'd like to see us put into action here. Let's get at it, kossacks!