Kelly Gallaher of Community for Change wrote this detailed examination of Medicare Advantage, the flawed Rep. Ryan idea of private free market insurers left to their own devices. Keep in mind, Medicare Advantage replaces Medicare with private care, it's not a supplement. The Journal Times:
On Oct. 11, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., authored a commentary claiming that "drastic cuts to Medicare Advantage plans would devastate seniors enrolled in these plans."
As recently as April, four-fifths of House Republicans - including Ryan - voted to end the Medicare program as we know it for Americans 55 and younger. According to the National Journal: "They cast that vote on April 2 in support of a GOP alternative budget plan that would have converted Medicare from a program that guarantees seniors all necessary access to care into a voucher system that provides future retirees only a fixed sum of money to purchase private health insurance." In Rep. Ryan's proposal " ... new retirees would not even have the option of buying into traditional fee-for-service Medicare once the voucher system is implemented."
AARP called the Ryan plan "a very dangerous idea."
It is also ironic that Ryan and his Republican colleagues have chosen Medicare Advantage as a rallying point. In 2003, Republicans create Medicare Advantage allowing private insurers to compete with government plans for seniors. Prices shot up and Republicans funneled in more money to increase reimbursement rates. Today, Medicare Advantage pays private plans 114 percent of the cost Medicare would have paid, with cost projections continuing to rise.
Overpayments resulted in $3.36 billion in profits for private insurers in 2006 alone, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This free market experiment has not yielded the innovations promised and the only "advantage" has been for private insurance companies and not the American people.
Current health care legislation which Rep. Ryan opposes is designed to cut the waste and overpayments in Medicare Advantage, but not benefits. Any argument against such action is really an argument in favor of waste and abuse. The current system is unsustainable and he helped create it.
In speaking about his failure to act on health care just last week, Ryan said "We should have fixed this under our watch and I'm frustrated we didn't." Ryan had years to fix our broken system; he failed. Democrats will protect the promise they made to American seniors with Medicare 40 years ago and pass real health care reform.
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