According to Paul Ryan, it is acceptable when it is Medicare..not so much when it is for the rest of the population. While he was Chair (and author of the Path to Poverty Prosperity) of the House Budget Committee, Ryan claimed that his “new” Medicare plan would control costs by having a more competitive market and giving patients more choices–through the use of subsidies and vouchers. As the head of Ways and Means, Chairman Ryan has been tapped to serve on a task force to find an alternative to the Affordable Care Act. Expect more of the same old, tired ideas disguised with a bunch of meaningless buzz words, that he’s been touting for the last 5 years. There is no desire to help Americans get affordable healthcare…Jason Easley said it best:
It is easy to predict what kind of ACA replacement plan Rep. Ryan will come up with. The Ryan budget is based on repealing the ACA and replacing it with nothing, but how Ryan treats Medicare/Medicaid speaks volumes about what his ACA alternative will look like. Rep. Ryan will most likely suggest some combination of the tax credits and vouchers that will allow people who are uninsured to buy health insurance. Ryan will probably throw in some language about medical malpractice reform and buying insurance across state lines for good measure.
In short, Ryan’s plan is going to be same tired ideas that Republicans have been trying to sell as health care reform for decades. What the Ryan plan will be is another repackage of more of the same. The bottom line is that Rep. Ryan and his Republican colleagues aren’t going to propose anything that will help people get affordable health insurance. The Republican plan has always been based on taking the affordability out of affordable health care.
Thanks to Paul Ryan’s best friend, Gerry Mander, he will never lose his job despite the fact that his plan will have a devastating affect on his constituency.
Government subsidized health insurance is totally cool if you’re a member of Congress (like Paul Ryan). Otherwise it’s socialism.
We already have an existing healthcare plan that could be used to replace PP ACA or Obamacare. It has been used for years by both political parties. I have never heard a single complaint nor has it been subject to sequestration, reform, or any other funding challenge It’s not free, but the member plan is reasonable. It is subsidized by the tax payer and has all the features that the GOP has objected to in Obamacare.
It has only one fault; it is not single payer.
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/08/health-care-for-members-of-congress/