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It Isn’t Just Medicare: Don’t Forget Paul Ryan’s Vision for Medicaid by Harold Pollack, thedailybeast.com | August 21, 2012
My brother-in-law Vincent sits with me as I finish this piece. He is intellectually disabled and has been repeatedly hospitalized, most recently last week. As someone who relies on Medicare, he will be deeply affected by the outcome of this election. Yet Vincent, like millions of others, doesn’t only rely on Medicare; he relies on Medicaid, too. While Democrats have been hammering Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan on Medicare over the past week, lambasting their proposal to convert the program to vouchers, far less attention has been paid to the Republican duo’s plans for Medicaid—even though, for many people, the fates of the two programs are closely linked. Medicaid has always been Medicare’s essential backstop. About one third of Medicare spending finances services for “dual-eligibles”—nine million people who, like Vincent, are eligible for both programs, and who often have complex needs. So what do Romney and Ryan have in store for dual-eligibles? read more »Paul Ryan's Rape Reversal by Alex Seitz-Wald, salon.com | August 21, 2012
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan were quick to flee Rep. Todd Akin’s drowning ship after he said that victims of “legitimate rape” magically don’t get pregnant, but a closer inspection reveals that Ryan’s views on abortion are not that different from Akin’s. “Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan disagree with Mr. Akin’s statement, and a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape,” a Romney spokesperson said in a statement late last night. Romney, of course, has a bipolar relationship with the issue of a woman’s right to choose, but the spokesperson’s statement represents a flip-flop for Ryan, who has proposed and supported legislation that would outlaw abortion with no exception for rape. read more »The Neverending Republican War On Medicare by Jon Perr, dailykos.com | August 20, 2012
Republican demagoguery of Medicare began well before President Johnson signed it into law in 1965. "I was there, fighting the fight, voting against Medicare," Bob Dole later boasted, "Because we knew it wouldn't work in 1965." In 1964, George H.W. Bush was among the first to call it "socialized medicine." And three years earlier, Ronald Reagan voiced his opposition. But they were wrong. Medicare did work and Americans in their sunset years were more free, not less. Before Medicare, half of seniors had no health insurance at all, a crisis which has been virtually eliminated. And the poverty rate for Americans 65 and older was cut in half in under 10 years. Of course, for Republicans yesterday defeats are tomorrow's battles. Their long war on Medicare was no different. read more »Paul Ryan’s Medicare Misconceptions by Tom Daschle, thedailybeast.com | August 20, 2012
Paul Ryan’s elevation to the national stage has triggered heightened interest in the critical debate on the future of Medicare. We should welcome and engage it. The outcome will affect the health and quality of life of every American, either immediately or at some point in the future. Thus far, candidates Romney and Ryan have focused exclusively on the size and sustainability of the Medicare budget. But that misses the most important factor in this debate: one can’t address rising Medicare costs without also addressing our nation’s health-care costs in total. Neither Medicare nor any other health-related program in the country can survive unless we contain health costs sectorwide. But to do that successfully policymakers must take three fundamental realities into account. read more »False Piety and the Medicare Debate by E.J. Dionne, truthdig.com | August 20, 2012
Deficit hawks are worried that the Medicare debate in the presidential campaign will make it impossible to reach a post-election deal to balance the budget. At the same time, much of the punditry focuses on how mean and nasty this campaign is. Those who are anxious about the deficit should relax. This campaign could actually pave the way for a sensible budget deal. And those who bemoan the rock-’em-sock-’em campaign should stop wringing their hands and get about the business of calling out falsehoods and identifying misleading assertions. read more »Why Romney’s Choice of Ryan Won’t Help America Debate the Big Issues by Robert B. Reich, robertreich.org | August 17, 2012
I keep hearing that Mitt Romney’s pick of Paul Ryan “enables the country to have the debate it needs to have,” or “permits us to have a grownup discussion,” or “finally presents America with a real choice.” The New York Times oped page proclaims: “Let the Real Debate Begin!” Debate? What debate? Romney’s choice of Ryan won’t usher in a “real debate” about much of anything except, perhaps, the danger to our democracy of billionaires like casino-magnate Sheldon Adelson (whose blessing Ryan immediately sought this week) who are pouring tens of millions of dollars into negative advertising. (Adelson alone has committed $100 million of his fortune.) Those negative ads, by the way, are making it all the harder for average Americans to sort out the truth from well-financed big lies – and understand, let alone debate, the big issues this election year. read more »Medicare Myths, Debunked by Paul Waldman, prospect.org | August 17, 2012
At the moment, the hot issue of the 2012 presidential campaign is Medicare, with the Obama and Romney campaigns trading charges and counter-charges over the health-insurance program for the elderly. Since we at the Prospect love clarifying the muddy and making the complex understandable, we thought we'd unpack the arguments the two sides are making and provide some context so we can all grasp this a bit better. We'll start with the campaigns' claims. read more »The Real Medicare Question by Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post | August 17, 2012
Everyone agrees that something has to be done about skyrocketing costs for Medicare and Medicaid, the health-care program for the poor. The question is what do we want Medicare to be? There is no reason Medicare cannot be reformed as social insurance. Other industrialized countries provide universal health coverage for their entire populations for a fraction of what we spend in the United States, and those other countries achieve equal or better health outcomes. Surely we can continue to do so for those of retirement age — if we still want to. The question to ask Romney is whether he believes in social insurance — whether his objections to the way Obama has begun to reform Medicare are fiscal or ideological. Ask him and Ryan whether they agree that markets are often efficient but seldom compassionate. Ask him whether he sees the free market as our servant or our master. read more »How Romney and Ryan Plan to Close Your Family Planning Clinic by Dana Liebelson, Mother Jones | August 17, 2012
If you want to know what a Mitt Romney presidency and a Paul Ryan vice-presidency would mean for your local family planning clinic, look at what happened in Texas and Ryan's home state of Wisconsin. Women's health clinics around the country rely on federal funding for family planning. Almost all of that money comes from two sources: Medicaid, the joint federal-state health care program for low-income people, pregnant women, and infants; and the decades old program known as Title X. GOP governors like Texas's Rick Perry and Wisconsin's Scott Walker have targeted both of these income streams in their states, blocking many clinics from receiving crucial funds. But Romney and Ryan would gut both programs on the federal level, all but ensuring that clinics in blue states have to close, too. read more »Romney Makes Clear His Plan For Medicare: Partial Privatization by Bill Scher, OurFuture.org | August 17, 2012
Mitt Romney whipped out a whiteboard yesterday primarily to simplify and amplify his brazen lie that President's Obama health care law cuts benefits for seniors -- literally putting "$716B Cut" next to the word "Seniors", when in fact Obama saves $716 billion in the cost of Medicare without cutting be read more »
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Hidden Costs of Medicare Advantage, The Washington Post | October 16, 2009
President Obama has proposed cutting more than $100 billion in subsidies over 10 years, a contentious component of health-care reform that will be fought in earnest as the bills move through Congress. But unlike some issues that touch off partisan sparring, Medicare Advantage has an unlikely band of bipartisan defenders who have already battled to restore $10 billion of the proposed reductions. more »
Health Care Triumph Gives Way To Heightented Battle, Los Angeles Times | October 16, 2009
The battle over healthcare entered a new, more frenzied stage Wednesday, as lawmakers and powerful interest groups jockeyed for advantage now that most believe some form of an overhaul will ultimately be signed into law. The Senate Finance Committee's passage Tuesday of a sweeping healthcare bill -- with the support of all of its Democratic members, plus Republican Olympia J. more »
White House Team Joins Talks on Health Care Bill , The New York Times | October 16, 2009
A delegation of senior White House officials met on Wednesday at the Capitol with the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, and the chairmen of the Finance and health committees, as Democrats turned their full attention to merging competing versions of the comprehensive health care legislation. more »
Swing Voters To Play Trump Cards In Senate Showdown, Los Angeles Times | October 16, 2009
With Republicans almost unanimously opposed to a healthcare overhaul and with 60 votes needed to thwart a threatened GOP filibuster, every Democrat and independent has become vital for Senate strategists. more »
Democrats Address Their Own Rifts on Health Care, The New York Times | October 15, 2009
Deep fissures among Senate Democrats became evident on Thursday as lawmakers moved closer to a floor debate on legislation to remake the health care system. The divisions involved two issues: whether the government should sell health insurance, in competition with private insurers, and whether Congress should offset any of the cost of legislation to increase Medicare payments to doctors. more »
Health Insurers Emerge as Obama's Top Foe, The Washington Post | October 14, 2009
Now they have an enemy. For months, President Obama and his administration waged their fight for a health-care overhaul without a clear opponent, even courting the industry executives and interest groups that helped kill reform efforts 15 years ago. more »
Health Care Turns to Harry Reid, time.com | October 14, 2009
Now that the last of the five congressional committees with jurisdiction over health care, Max Baucus' Senate Finance Committee, has passed its much anticipated reform bill, it falls to majority leader Harry Reid to cobble together something that can pass the Senate. more »
Poll Shows Democrats Lead On Issues, CNN | September 4, 2009
Despite the drop in President Obama's approval ratings, Republican policies are still not as popular as Democratic policies, according to a new national poll. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey indicates the GOP has gained some ground in polls in recent months, but Democrats still hold the advantage on key issues such as the economy and health care. more »
Democrats Consider Setting "Trigger" for Public Option in Health Reform, Los Angeles Times | September 4, 2009
Looking to break the logjam on health care legislation, the White House and Democrats in the Senate are increasingly placing their hopes on the idea of a "trigger" that, if set off, would allow the government to offer health insurance to many Americans. more »
