Obama Has Turned Medicare into MediSCARE

Medicare! The government health care program senior citizens have come to depend on in their later years.
Medicare, like Social Security, is said to be on a collision course with bankruptcy if reform is not forthcoming.

A fight is brewing between the Obama and Romney campaigns now that Gov. Romney has selected Republican budget guru, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate. Ryan has in recent years put forth two budgets, both passed by the Republican controlled House and squashed by the Democratically controlled Senate. In the budget, Ryan has a plan to reform Medicare. Not surprisingly, the Democrats are distorting the truth about the Ryan plan telling seniors that Ryan is going to destroy Medicare. It's the "throw granny in her wheelchair over the cliff" demagoguery.

Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review, wrote in his column, that the Obama camp will never tell the full story:

"The Democrats never want to admit three things about Ryan's Medicare plan. First, that it doesn't affect anyone over age 55 and won't kick in for another 10 years. Conceding this makes the job of frightening elderly voters trickier, so it is best ignored. 

Second, that the current version of the Ryan plan gives future beneficiaries the option to keep traditional Medicare. They will choose among a menu of insurance plans, including a fee-for-service federal option, all of which will be required to offer at least the same level of benefits as Medicare now.The federal government will pay everyone's premiums up to a level matching the second-lowest-priced plan in a given area. There's no reason a beneficiary will have to pay more (although he can choose a pricier plan and pay the difference).

Third, that Ryan and President Barack Obama cap overall Medicare spending at the same level. The president is adamant that the growth of Medicare is unsustainable -- and rightly so. Everyone acknowledges the program is the foremost driver of our long-term debt. Both Ryan and the president use the same formula of roughly GDP growth plus inflation for setting Medicare's global budget. The difference is that the president wants a bureaucratic board to get the savings through arbitrary limits on prices that ultimately will limit access to care, while Ryan wants to get the savings through competition and choice.

The Democrats' demagoguery should be further crimped by the fact that they voted $700 billion in cuts in Medicare to fund Obamacare, not in the far-off future, but right now. Ryan preserved the cuts in his budget but set them aside for the Medicare trust fund. Mitt Romney wants to repeal Obamacare in its entirety, including the Medicare cuts."

Three years ago, President Obama promised Medicare would "be there for the next generation."
Yet, President Obama and his liberal allies, have taken from Medicare over $700 billion to pay for Obamacare -- his campaign now is touting this as an achievement.

And there are indications that Obamacare will eventually create even steeper cuts in Medicare benefits, which could lead to reduced access to care for seniors.

Seniors will be hit with higher costs and fewer benefits because of Obamacare's Medicare cuts. Beginning in 2013, Obamacare will cut over $100 billion from Medicare Advantage, a vital program that benefits one in four seniors.

Senior citizens need to look beyond the scare tactics of the Obama liberal machine and understand what's at stake in November. Obamacare needs to be repealed. It's bad politics. It's bad policy.  For seniors it's Mediscare!

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