Rep. Ryan(R) Plan to Make Your Healthcare Worse
Last week, I co-hosted Carlos Watson's morning news program on MSNBC. In an interview with Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Congressman was combative as he wrongly dismissed Democratic proposals for healthcare reform as "the government taking it over." Ryan claimed he wants to get "everybody insured" and that his Patient's Choice Act would do just that--giving people "the ability...to have a plan just like the one we have here in Congress."
It appears, however, that Ryan is just another conservative cog in what New York Times columnist Paul Krugman calls "a wall of misinformation."
Just check out the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) new scathing report entitled Coburn-Ryan Health Bill Would Jeopardize Coverage for Many, While Failing To Reduce the Number of Uninsured Significantly. Here's just some of the damage this bill would do:
•fails to make coverage affordable for many low-income people while also eliminating Medicaid coverage for low-income children, parents, and seniors, pushing tens of millions of vulnerable people into the private insurance market
•would cause employers to drop coverage while failing to provide viable alternatives for people who lose that coverage
•allows insurers selling coverage through (optional) exchanges to charge higher premiums for sicker people and exclude coverage for pre-existing conditions for one year
•prohibits exchanges from placing any limit on premiums and cost-sharing amounts
•doesn't set meaningful minimum standards on benefits, or limit deductibles or out-of-pocket costs
•lack of market reforms means that tax credit and low-income subsidy "would almost certainly be insufficient to enable many people who are older, in poorer health, or have special health care needs to purchase affordable coverage"
•low-income people could exhaust subsidy just to pay premiums
•low-income seniors eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare would face substantially higher costs because Medicaid would no longer pay their Medicare premiums and cost-sharing
The CBPP writes, "Overall, the proposal is not likely to do much to reduce the ranks of the uninsured and would make matters worse for many people who currently have coverage."
This might be a case of the health insurance industry getting what it pays for. The Center for Responsive Politics data indicates that the insurance industry is Ryan's top corporate campaign and PAC contributor: he received over $492,000 since he first ran in 1998, including over $210,000 in the 2007-08 and 2009-10 cycles.
Ryan is hailed--like Eric Cantor--by the right-wing as a rising star in the GOP. It seems, however, that when all is said and done he offers only more of the same: a whole lot of talking points that mask cruel outcomes for millions of people in his state and across the nation. Ryan and his conservative colleagues will be out peddling this misinformation during the August recess-- fight back.
