Medicare: It's Socialized Medicine and It Works.

The reason Medicare costs are growing is because it covers ONLY the *most expensive*, sickest population: elderly people.  There are no healthier (less costly) enrollees (younger people) to spread out the costs.

Also... Like medicine ACROSS THE BOARD, for everyone, costs have been rising for decades, and they seriously need to be put in check.

But the problem isn't that we're spending too much on Medicare: the problem is that US medical care costs too much. (Other countries get much more out of every medical-dollar--they spend less and  have better health outcomes!).

"Obamacare" made a noble first pass at fixing the obvious problems that slow this too-fast growth of Medicare (which every conservative complains about) over the next decade:

• eliminate overpayments to private insurers, 
• reform provider payments to encourage greater efficiency, 
• tie reimbursements to improvements in economic productivity, 
• and reduce fraud and abuse.
• (from Romney Claims Obama 'Robbed Medicare' 8/13/2012)

These changes are where the "$700billion" comes from.

Very, very cynically, Romney/Ryan are savaging Obama for "robbing Medicare of $700billlion"---but THEIR Medicare plan preserves those very "cuts"/savings!! AND then uses them to pay for their massive tax cuts!

• The Ryan-backed GOP budget maintains these cuts, but rather than using them to improve the Medicare program, it applies the savings to pay for massive tax cuts. As the budget chairman himself admitted during an April 5, 2011 speech at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), “We retain the Medicare savings” — and that’s not all. The Republican blueprint transforms the existing Medicare benefit guarantee into a premium support program that would provide seniors with depreciating vouchers to buy insurance from private plans. (from Romney Claims Obama 'Robbed Medicare' 8/13/2012)
• (Ezra Klein, in the 5th paragraph, gives plan details/citations in the legislation)

This kind of massive whopper of a lie is par for the course with the conservative chatterers and the Romney (Now Romney/Ryan) campaign. But it's a biggie, because Medicare is a major issue for the electorate.  And it turns out that a massive majority of Americans do not like the Ryan and Romney plans to voucherize Medicare. 

And: on top of the savings ("cuts" as Romney/Ryan call it) from Obamacare (which Romney/Ryan keep)--Romney's plan would institute another $2 BILLION IN CUTS (Klein, last paragraph). ??!! They can't have it both ways--complaining about the "cuts"/savings then keeping them AND ADDING TO THEM. 

The truth hurts Romney/Ryan. Which is why they are lying, distorting, obfuscating and muddying to keep the less-informed voter confused.  

They cannot be allowed to get away with it.

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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: April 2011: Paul Ryan's plan would "Essentially End Medicare"

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Reading List-- 

• How Mitt Romney Would Quickly Bankrupt Medicare | ThinkProgress (8/15/2012) http://bit.ly/PdgbFL
• Despite the fact that his plan KEEPS the savings-- if indeed Romney JETTISONED "Obamacaree' and its $716billion savings-- he would be fast tracking Medicare bankruptcy by 8 years.
• Ezra Klein - You’re not allowed to demand a “serious convo” over Medicare unless you can answer these 3questions (8/13/2012) http://wapo.st/On50eK
• 1) Mitt Romney says that “unlike the current president who has cut Medicare funding by $700 billion. We will preserve and protect Medicare.” What happens to those cuts in the Ryan budget? [ANSWER: IT KEEPS THEM]
• 2) What is the growth rate of Medicare under the Ryan budget? [GDP+0.5%]
• 3) What is the growth rate of Medicare under the Obama budget? [GDP+0.5%]
• Let’s be very clear on what that means: Ryan’s budget — which Romney has endorsed —keeps Obama’s cuts to Medicare, and both Ryan and Obama envision the same long-term spending path for Medicare. The difference between the two campaigns is not in how much they cut Medicare, but in how they cut Medicare.(see the "how" here)
• The Romney-Ryan $700B Disagreement - Health Stew - Boston.com - http://bo.st/NbkAps
• spring of 2011, the new Republican House majority votes overwhelmingly in favor of the budget proposal advanced by the new House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan. Ryan proposes a controversial restructuring of Medicare to move it in a premium support/voucher direction beginning in 2023, a proposal that gets lots and lots of attention, pro and con. Ryan's budget proposal also includes complete repeal of the ACA, with one little-noticed exception, the $500 billion in ACA Medicare reductions. Oh.
• Nearly every House and Senate Republican votes for the Ryan proposal. In the spring of 2012, Ryan again releases the plan, and includes the same repeal of the ACA, minus the Medicare reductions, now approaching $700B. And, again, nearly every House Republican votes for the plan.
• Meanwhile, as this is all happening, another group of Republicans is spending their time running for the Republican presidential nomination, among them, Mitt Romney. After initially putting some distance between himself and Ryan's budget plan, Romney gives the plan an enthusiastic embrace, though not a complete endorsement. Mitt, you see, wants to repeal every word and punctuation mark of the ACA, including the Medicare reductions.
• Now, the Romney campaign's budget proposal includes major tax cuts, defense spending hikes, a balanced budget amendment, and enormous (though unspecified) reductions in all other federal spending (he holds Social Security, not Medicare, harmless). These reductions would require Medicare cuts far greater than anything in the ACA; indeed, the ACA reductions would only be a down-payment on the necessary cuts to come.
• Romney Would Almost Certainly Cut Medicare By More Than Obama. Probably A Lot More. | The New Republic (8/14/2012) http://bit.ly/Pdk3GF
•  If Romney leaves Social Security untouched, then spreads the rest of the cuts equally across domestic programs, he’d have to reduce Medicare funding by $2 trillion over the next ten years. (First number!) That’s in the next years, so it’d affect current retirees. And that’s nearly three times the $700 billion cut in the Affordable Care Act that Romney keeps attacking.* (Second number!)
• Do we know for sure Romney would spread the cuts equally? Nope. Remember, he won’t give specifics.... But Medicare is such a big program, and the spending cap has so little room, that realistically he’d still have to find cuts in the program. They might not total up to $2 trillion, but they’d almost certainly be bigger than $700 billion—and probably a lot bigger. That’s particularly true if Romney abided by the constraints of a balanced budget amendment, as he’s said he would.
• Romney Campaign Attacks Obama For Medicare Cuts That Ryan And Romney Have Endorsed | The New Republic (8/12/2012) http://bit.ly/RFxU8X
• Jonathan Cohn: If Somebody Is Raiding Medicare, It's Not Obama. It's Romney And Ryan. | The New Republic (8/15/2012) - http://bit.ly/PdjGMe
• Paul Ryan put the same cuts in his budget plan. And while Romney has insisted he’d restore them, his budget doesn't have room for that. If he’s serious about his overall spending plan, then he’d surely have to cut Medicare by as much as Obama did. In fact, he’d probably have to cut it by even more.
• FLASHBACK: Republican Scott Brown says he would vote for Paul Ryan's #Medicare killing budget http://bit.ly/kExVQN 
• Public Opinion Snapshot: A Preview of Public Opinion on the New Ryan Budget (8/12/2012) http://bit.ly/NsdeP9
• the Kaiser Foundation recently asked the public whether “Medicare should continue as it is today, with the government guaranteeing seniors health insurance and making sure that everyone gets the same defined set of benefits” or “Medicare should be changed to a system in which the government would guarantee each senior a fixed amount of money to put toward health insurance. Seniors would purchase that coverage either from traditional Medicare or from a list of private health plans.” By an overwhelming 70-25 margin the public chose the former option, which is traditional Medicare, over the Ryan plan’s premium support model.
• Scott Brown's tortured rejection of the voucherization of Medicare: Blue Mass Group | Republicans : Ryan’s Medicare plan :: Rats : Sinking Ship (5/2011) http://bit.ly/QQAsBi
• Conservative hilariously trying to rationalize away the fact we spend more on health care and do not get better outcomes:  the reason? WE HAVEN'T LET THE MAGICAL MARKET TRULY WORK! (Translation: get rid of medicare)
• Romney/Ryan Attack Obama for "$700B cuts"--but keep those "cuts" in their own plan... and do not reinvest the savings back into medical care. Some fact checking: 
• Romney Slams Obama For Medicare Cuts In Paul Ryan’s Budget | TPMDC (8/11/2012) http://bit.ly/MoG6ds
• Fact-Checking Romney: Does Health Reform Cut Medicare, Levy $500 Billion Tax? - ABC News (6/28/2012) http://abcn.ws/RFs2fZ
• So does it “cut” Medicare by $500 billion?
• Medicare spending will continue to grow, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), but ACA will slow that growth. According to a report from the Kaiser Family Health Foundation  over the next 10 years, the federal government will devote about $500 billion less to Medicare than it would have without ACA.
• CMS and the Kaiser Family Foundation tell ABC News that there will be no benefit cuts to Medicare.  They say instead of Medicare’s being cut, there will be much more spending at the end of a 10-year window, but it does slow the rate of that growth. This is all unless Congress makes drastic changes to Medicare, for example passing House Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare Plan.
• CMS says—and Kaiser agrees—that spending will be reduced by getting rid of fraud and ending overpayments to private insurance companies. It sends a message to those insurance companies: Operate more efficiently.
• And instead of cuts, the CMS says they will be able to fund new benefits, including free preventive care and broader prescription coverage, including closing the “doughnut hole” affecting seniors.
• Politifact: “Pants on Fire” http://bit.ly/NbD23I
• Washington Post: “Four Pinocchios” http://wapo.st/MTHd6g
• Huffington Post: Romney Campaign Falsely Accuses Obama Of Gutting Welfare In New Ad: http://huff.to/P7Rcn6
• AP: Romney renews welfare attack in new ad “Independent fact checkers have found the premise of the ad to be false.”http://apne.ws/RNlOfG
• Des Moines Register: Romney's welfare talk misses reality:http://dmreg.co/NbZmYq

The Media and Ryan v. Obama Medicare convo

• Soledad O'Brien deserves kudos for this pair of interviews:
• O'Brien holds him to the facts about Medicare: Pawlenty suggests that Soledad O’Brien doesn’t understand English | The Raw Story (8/15/2012) - http://bit.ly/PkIkKj
• O'Brien pins Sununu down on Medicare facts:  Romney surrogate to CNN host: ‘Put an Obama bumper sticker on your forehead’ | The Raw Story (8/14/2012) http://bit.ly/Re0FfK
• Jared Bernstein - The $700 Billion Smoke Screen, Or How The GOP Is Lying To You About Medicare - The Winning Words Project (8/14/2012) http://bit.ly/PiXOQL
• In posts about the Ryan pick, I’ve argued that if we in the commentariat and the media get this right, the American electorate could have a salutary debate on the role of government. But, I stressed, that’s a big “if.” We particularly need an eagle-eyed media to cut through the inaccurate and misleading stances that show up with increasing frequency around this time.