WASHINGTON — In letter after letter, Republican lawmakers have reminded their constituents: Obamacare cut Medicare.
Implied, and sometimes stated outright, was that the GOP’s own plan should instead bolster the program.
“Any reforms must protect Medicare,” Congressman Ted Poe, a Texas Republican who represents a district in the Houston area, wrote in a letter last month to one of his constituents about the Affordable Care Act’s failures and his party’s own plans.
It’s not Trumpcare, it’s Ryancare. This is the best that Paul Ryan can do after seven years of talking about repealing Obamacare. Maybe if he can pass this stinkbomb, he can spend the next seven years raising money for the repeal and replacement of Ryancare.
This is silly political propaganda under the supposed guise of so-called impartial fact checking. Everyone that cares (you should if you are under 55 years of age) knows that there is a separate proposal to reform Medicare and those proposals make all the cuts cited in this article moot (not just eliminate them but literally make them irrelevant).
Absent that reform, according to the Obama administration cabinet members who administered Medicare until a few weeks ago:
1. Those joining Medicare beginning in 2020 or so (or those not then collecting SS or of high income) will pay twice for their Medicare Part B premium than those of us who have been on Medicare. People joining between now ant then will pay more or also but not twice as much.
2. Doctors will stop getting raises from Medicare in 2024 and Medicare will increasingly experience the limited provider participation that currently plagues Medicaid (already many providers will not accept Medicare patients unless they have been patients before reaching Medicare age)
3. Hospitals will get a 13% cut in already low rates beginning in 2028 (2027 if the ACHA is passed) and many will go out of business or severely restrict their capacity