Guardian: What we're not being told about Ryan's Medicare plan (it'll hand $30 trillion to insurers)

[highplainsdem]

This opinion piece in the Guardian was written by Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Economic_and_Policy_Research):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/apr/26/healthcare-congress

What we're not being told about Paul Ryan's Medicare plan
Dean Baker
Tuesday 26 April 2011 14.30 BST


-snip-

Paul Ryan did his best to lay out the long-term story as clearly as possible with his plan to privatise Medicare. The analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) shows that Ryan's plan would hugely increase the cost of healthcare to seniors. Under the Ryan plan, a Medicare-equivalent policy is projected to cost almost half of a median 65-year-old retiree's income by 2030. It would soon exceed the income of most retirees, as healthcare costs outpace income growth.

However most of the additional burden projected for retirees is not the result of cost-shifting from the government. The vast majority of the additional burden that the CBO projected for retirees comes from the higher cost of private insurance compared with the government-run Medicare system. The additional cost as a result of adopting Ryan's privatised system is more than $30tn over Medicare's 75-year planning horizon.

To put this in perspective, CBO's projected increase in the cost of buying Medicare-equivalent insurance policies through the private sector is roughly six times the size of the projected social security shortfall. The projected shortfall in social security has sent thousands of politicians screaming about devastating burden on our children. How, then, should we describe something that is six times as large as this "devastating burden", a sum that is just under $100,000 for every man, woman and child in the country?

The CBO analysis should have led every budget reporter in the country to point out the enormous cost savings that Medicare provides relative to private insurers. They should have been pointing out that the country will face an enormous burden from exploding healthcare costs if it does not fix its healthcare system. And that the Medicare system is an important part of the solution.

-snip-

This is a really scathing opinion piece about how the US media "spread drivel about the issue being a matter of whether people like the government or the market."

[jtown1123]

1. Dean Baker is one of the few economists for the rest of us. K&R

[Scuba]

2. Thanks. Needs re-posting. n/t

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. Why is the british press the only ones who can be trusted to write about US politics? nt

[closeupready]

7. Sad but true.

:(

[freshwest]

4. K&R! Will post widely for those on the fence. Deficit reduction? No way! Grand theft - Again!

[pansypoo53219]

5. will there be DEATH PANELS?

i bet there will be RATIONING. cost benefit analysises?

[kenfrequed]

6. Whoopie!

More corporate wealthfare masquerading as the "free market." What a bunch of crap. Conservatives only believe in helping the wealthy.

[leftstreet]

8. K&R

Well worth reading

Thanks for posting

[inna]

9. K&R with a minor correction...

Dean Baker is a co-director of The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), established in 1999 and based in Washington:


http://www.cepr.net/index.php/about-us/


To the best of my knowledge, Baker is not affiliated with the European CEPR.


A minor point - but worth making for the sake of accuracy.

[highplainsdem]

11. You're right. The British spelling of Centre made me think it was the European CEPR. I'll

ask the mods to let me edit the OP.

[highplainsdem]

12. I've corrected the OP. Thanks for catching that mistake!

[DCKit]

10. K&R and off to the megagreatest. nt

[Snoutport]

13. K&R&facebooked the article

[snot]

14. K&R'd