Vicious Rants of an Angry Yellow Man

The House passed the Ryan bill even though there is no chance that it will become law because of the Democrats have the majority in the Senate and Obama is sure to veto any bill that resembles this one. The budget is very complicated so today I will only talk about the part regarding healthcare as proposed by Ryan. The good thing about this bill is that it forces a debate on the things that are most difficult to cut, ie, entitlements. Due to the power of the senior citizens at the poll, both parties have been reluctant to even talk about cutting Medicare and social security. Certainly, without the challenge from Ryan, Obama would not be so quick talk about how to save money from Medicare. But at the end of the day Ryan's proposals will not work to decrease healthcare cost and will not reduce the deficit. This is the analysis of the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The central point of the Ryan proposal is to dismantle Medicare as we know it today and instead give vouchers for seniors to buy their private insurance. This shows a lack of understanding about health insurance in this country. The administrative cost of private insurance companies is higher than Medicare. The insurance companies also have to make a profit for their investors. If they have been effective in holding down cost then we would not have so many people uninsured and premiums like mine would not have more than double in the past 3-4 years. I would say that Medicare have been too generous in providing this entitlement. For example, it covers a motor scooter for people who can't walk. So now we have many seniors who can walk calling their doctors to authorize a scooter for them. Companies are calling up patients to entice them to bug their doctor about all kinds of free equipment. Many doctors do not want to anger their patients and thus approve things that are really not needed. This obviously drive up cost.

Maybe some of these things would stop if the coverage that seniors are able to buy with their vouchers would not cover them. But it is obvious to everybody, including the CBO, that the amount of the voucher will leave seniors way short. So I am sure by then the seniors, insurance companies, equipment firms, and pharmaceuticals will all lobby Congress to raise the voucher amount. This is what happened when the drug companies and senior groups lobby for the prescription drug coverage. To me that was a waste. Medicare had to use private insurance companies to run the program under the law. This added a middleman to negotiate with the drug companies who now can sell more of the brand products with more seniors who can afford them. Under the law, Medicare with its powerful influence, cannot negotiate directly with the drug companies. Whose idea was that? So now we have more deficit as a result of this program. Who passed and signed this bill? The Republican Congress and George Bush!

The Republicans attacked Obamacare with a scare tactic that say it was cutting Medicare and there would be death panels. These were false charges for political gain only. Ryan's bill is in fact cutting Medicare and will have negative effects on the health of seniors and the handicap. I think the Democrats will use this against the Republicans in 2012. While I welcome a debate to change aspects of Medicare and Medicaid, this proposal is too radical and will not improve the spiraling cost of healthcare. I am afraid as the details are eventually heard by the voters the reaction will be so negative that the Republicans will back off. This will mean the legitimate debate about entitlements will be put off further.