Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Advertisements
Advertisements

Pocan takes concern with Ryan’s Medicare cuts

A group of legislators and health experts criticized U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan and its cuts to Medicare at a roundtable discussion in Madison on Monday. 

At the meeting, Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, said Ryan’s Medicare plan cuts spending on the program for seniors by approximately 15 percent while increasing premiums and costs.
  

“In my six years on the state’s budget committee, I helped extend health care to 98 percent of Wisconsinites, including coverage for all children,” Pocan said. “By contrast, the GOP plan would result in seniors being worse off than they are today, and that’s just wrong.”
  

Advertisements

Ryan’s plan would also, according to Pocan, create a voucher program for seniors entering after 2023, sending them to buy “costly private insurance with their reduced voucher spending.” 

The text of Ryan’s budget plan never calls the system a “voucher program” but instead said the “program growth would be determined by a competitive bidding process, with choice and competition forcing providers to reduce costs and improve quality for seniors.”

Pocan proposed that instead of cutting $200 billion in funding for Medicare, which Ryan’s plan calls for, he would let the Bush tax cuts expire, which he said, along with closing some corporate tax loopholes, will be more than enough to provide the $200 billion in revenue Ryan is looking for.

Ryan has been equally critical of Democrats’ budget proposals, releasing a statement Thursday criticizing Senate Democrats for not passing a budget like the House did three weeks ago. 

In the statement, Ryan said it has been three years since Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-North Dakota, last advanced a budget in the Senate. 

“[Conrad’s] budget from 2009 accelerated the looming debt crisis by helping to jam a massive health care overhaul into law on a partisan basis,” Ryan said in the statement. “True bipartisan solutions require the removal of partisan roadblocks like the president’s health care law and principled leadership willing to address the drivers of the debt.”

Rep. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, who like Pocan is also running for the 2nd Congressional District seat in Congress, also criticized the Medicare reforms in Ryan’s budget in a statement released shortly after the House passed Ryan’s budget.  

Roys said Ryan’s plan will “end Medicare as we know it” and is part of the “war on women” because Medicare beneficiaries are disproportionately female.  

Leigh Roberts, a chair member of the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, was part of the roundtable discussion and said Ryan’s plan could also hurt the health care system by repealing the Affordable Care Act because the act includes a provision prohibiting insurance companies from discriminating against a person because of pre-existing conditions.  

While Roberts is correct that Ryan’s plan does support the elimination of ACA, the text of Ryan’s plan also supports a policy requiring every insurance exchange to guarantee that they cannot deny coverage based on preexisting conditions. 

Pocan said he supports the curent version of the ACA and agrees the individual mandate, which is currently under review by the U.S. Supreme Court, is constitutional. He also emphasized his support for a government-run universal health care system, which he would fight for if elected.  

Advertisements
Leave a Comment
Donate to The Badger Herald

Your donation will support the student journalists of University of Wisconsin-Madison. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.

More to Discover
Donate to The Badger Herald

Comments (0)

All The Badger Herald Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *