Paul Ryan plans to make massive cuts to the Medicare program. It will result in a larger share of costs being shifted over to the elderly and the disabled people who rely on Medicare. Much has been said about how the plan will affect the elderly. Not as much has been said about how harmful Ryan’s plan will be for the thousands of people who are disabled and who use Medicare.
If you have somehow managed to avoid absolutely all information about the 2012 Presidential election, let me give you some very basic facts. The Republican Party have officially nominated Mitt Romney as their candidate who will be running for President of the United States. Romney selected Paul Ryan as his running mate, and as the person who would be Vice President if Romney is elected President.
Much has been said about how harmful Paul Ryan’s plan is in regards to Medicare. The short version is that he want to decimate the program, and offer a voucher system instead. People who are currently age 55, or older, will not be affected by the changes that Ryan would like to impose.
It will, however, cause problems for everyone else who uses Medicare. This includes thousands of people who are younger than the age of 55 who are eligible for Medicare because they are disabled. This includes people who are blind, who have a physical disability, who have certain types of special needs (anything from Down Syndrome to Autism), or who have cancer (or other serious illnesses).
Medicare is a government run, or public, form of health insurance. It is designed to provide affordable access to health care for people who are over the age of 65. As I already mentioned, it also helps people who are younger than age 65 as well, if the person has a permanent disability.
Tricia Neuman is the senior vice president of Kaiser Family Foundation. The Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit, nonpartisan, group that provides facts, information, and analysis for policymakers, the media, the health care community, and the public. It is not associated with Kaiser Permanente or Kaiser Industries. Tricia Neuman said:
“People with disabilities are among the most vulnerable of the Medicare population. They have chronic conditions that require ongoing care, and, in many cases, they have relatively low incomes”.
Ryan’s plan is to turn Medicare into a voucher system. The amount of the voucher would be based on the cost of the second-least-expensive health insurance plan that is available. Experts who have studied this are saying that this plan would probably be a plan from a private insurance company that is not offering benefits that are as comprehensive as what people are currently receiving from Medicare.
Disabled people, who are younger than age 55, who are currently using Medicare, would receive a voucher. They can use the voucher to purchase health insurance. If the cost of Medicare is higher than the voucher (as it likely will be), it would mean that disabled people who wanted to continue to be covered through Medicare would have to pay for the extra cost out of their own pockets.
As Tricia Neuman pointed out, this is not a group that is going to be able to afford to do so. Ryan’s plan is going to force disabled people into health insurance plans that are less comprehensive than Medicare, (unless the person can pay for the extra cost to stay covered by Medicare). This will result in people who are currently receiving the health care they require to go without it.
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