I just viewed Rep Ryan’s plan for Medicare.  Since I am under age 55, when I turn 65 or 67?, I will get a voucher for health insurance.  Somehow that will reduce the cost to the government.  I would have to hold several questionable assumptions for this “fantasy” to work.  First, I would have to assume that the insurance company will be more efficient with less overhead and still make at least a small profit compared to the government-provided Medicaid insurance.  Second, I have to assume that even though medical costs, according the Economic Policy Institute, have risen 131% in the last ten years; the voucher will continue to increase as the medical costs continue to rise.  Third, I have to assume that there will be private insurance companies that will want to insure a 65 or 67 year old person for only $11,000.  Jonathan Gruber, a leading healthcare expert from MIT, says that Ryan’s plan does not reduce costs through innovation; he says that it simply reduces benefits to seniors.  This reduction in benefits is also supported by Ezra Klein of the Washington Post said, “…what saves money is not the reform. It’s the cut. For Medicare, the cut is that the government wouldn’t cover the full cost of the private Medicare plans, and the portion they would cover is set to shrink as time goes on.”  I also recall that this solution is being offered by the party that fought against Medicare and has, more than a few times since the inception of the program, advocated for completely dismantling the program.  The original impetus for creating the Medicare program in the first place was a lack of insurance available for citizens over age 65.  Why should anyone believe that the marketplace that failed to insure over 50 million Americans will suddenly work to the benefit of seniors?  Remember, one of the ways to increase profits in the insurance industry is to deny benefits.  Wendell Potter, former Health Insurance executive and now of the Center for Public Integrity, said that the new Ryan Plan will produce ever skyrocketing premiums, a boon to the health insurance industry.  He further said that the plan will be devastating for most American families.

 Randy Karn