Factcheck.org has given President Obama a slap for misrepresenting Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan, in particular the proposal to overhaul Medicare.
The president’s approach appears to be deliberate partisanship and a refusal to accept the basic facts of the Ryan plan. Obama claims some seniors who are issued a Medicare voucher will be left with no insurance, but the irony is that the GOP is modeling their marketplace approach on the so-called “Obamacare” law that they hate. Under that mode of providing insurance, no senior would be shut out of the process, despite what Obama claims.
In an April 20 speech, the president said that if a senior can’t find a policy that covers their particular illness, they will be “out of luck.” He made a similar claim in remarks the next day.
Here’s the Factcheck.org analysis:
“…The plan would create a new Medicare exchange, with rules for participating insurance companies.
“… Ryan’s plan would shift future beneficiaries to private insurance plans, but it doesn’t call for seniors to find their own plans ‘on the open market.’ Instead, it sets up a Medicare exchange. Obama ignores certain provisions of the proposal.
“Here are the main bullet points on the House Republican plan:
- Medicare won’t change until 2022. New enrollees that year (65-year-olds) would get a subsidy to help them buy a private insurance plan through a new Medicare exchange.
- The exchange would offer plans only to seniors, and those plans would be required to provide a certain level of standard benefits. Insurance companies would also be required to cover anyone who wanted a plan and to charge the same premium for those of the same age.
- The average subsidy, or “premium-support payment,” as Ryan calls it, would be $8,000 in 2022. Those with higher incomes would pay more out of their own pocket, and the payments also would be different, depending on health status.
- Low-income seniors would get government-financed medical savings accounts, with $7,800 deposited into the account in 2022.
“So Medicare beneficiaries would buy coverage through a special marketplace. And plans would have to offer standard benefits — we don’t know what those would be yet — and accept everyone who applied. Sound familiar? It’s awfully similar to the state insurance exchanges that are part of the federal health care law.
“The president implies that seniors could be rejected by insurance companies when he says that ‘if you can’t get the health care that you need on the open market, then tough luck.’ But the Medicare plans would have to accept them.”
