Paul Ryan says vouchers instead of Medicare would 'empower' seniors

With language that would make George Orwell blush, Paul Ryan recently attempted to make his case for the destruction of Medicare by saying that a voucher system would “give seniors the power to deny business to inefficient providers.” What he doesn’t address is the ability of insurance companies – efficient or not – to tell the oh-so-powerful seniors to drop dead, which many of them will. Surely we’ve gotten past the days when a political party could lie so brazenly to voters and expect us to believe them. Good luck getting health insurance as we wave our little vouchers demanding health insurance no one is obligated to sell us.

From Bloomberg news: U.S. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said his proposal to overhaul Medicare would fight rising health-care costs by “empowering” senior citizens to “deny business to inefficient providers.” In a speech today before the Economic Club of Chicago, the Wisconsin Republican said replacing the traditional Medicare program with government subsidies to help seniors buy private health insurance would force providers to work to meet their needs and drive down costs. Ryan, responding to criticism of his plan, sought to shift the debate to Democrats’ own plan to cut Medicare costs through a board of experts charged with finding savings in the $500 billion program. “The disagreement isn’t really about the problem — it’s about the solution to controlling costs in Medicare,” Ryan said in prepared remarks. “Our plan is to give seniors the power to deny business to inefficient providers. Their plan is to give government the power to deny care to seniors.” ]]>