60 days, 60 stats - #13
Today's stat is a year: 2017. That's the year Medicare will run out of money. 50,000,000 seniors depend on it, so we should probably fix it. Medicare is also a major drain on our budget - right now 21% of our federal tax dollars go to support it, making it just slightly higher than defense spending.
So how to the candidates differ? Well, they both agree it's broken, and they both want to tie Medicare spending to a percentage of GDP, meaning as the national economy improves or declines, Medicare spending goes with it. The key difference is this; Obama is a critic of premium support. He would retain Medicare's defined-benefit structure, meaning that the government will pay whatever it takes to cover a specified set of services. Romney prefers a "defined contribution" approach, without actually fixing what's wrong with Medicare. This means, rather than paying whatever it takes, he'll give you a check, and you're on your own if that isn't enough to cover the cost. As you may have heard, health care costs in the US are the highest of any industrialized nation, and they're on the rise, so the Romney approach will quickly leave seniors paying more out of pocket, some estimate $6400/year more. Details here.
So how to the candidates differ? Well, they both agree it's broken, and they both want to tie Medicare spending to a percentage of GDP, meaning as the national economy improves or declines, Medicare spending goes with it. The key difference is this; Obama is a critic of premium support. He would retain Medicare's defined-benefit structure, meaning that the government will pay whatever it takes to cover a specified set of services. Romney prefers a "defined contribution" approach, without actually fixing what's wrong with Medicare. This means, rather than paying whatever it takes, he'll give you a check, and you're on your own if that isn't enough to cover the cost. As you may have heard, health care costs in the US are the highest of any industrialized nation, and they're on the rise, so the Romney approach will quickly leave seniors paying more out of pocket, some estimate $6400/year more. Details here.
I remember reading somewhere that these stats were supposed to be objective ...
ReplyDeleteSo, Obama gets a 'half true' because Ryan's OLD plan COULD raise taxes $6,400? I guess it's half true to say that Obamacare COULD raise costs to the taxpayer by $5 trillion.
Who's not objective, Politifact or the CBO? As soon as Ryan provides a detailed plan that his potential boss agrees with, I'll update you. Until then, we'll go with the CBPP/CBO analysis of the only medicare "reform" plan (it's actually a Medicare elimination plan) he's presented. Kaiser family Foundation estimated the increased burden on seniors at $6870, so we can use that number if you prefer. Politifact states exactly why it's half-true;there's not enough information to fully determine the impact.
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