Republican Paul Ryan's Medicare 'Vouchers' : Seniors Would Pay $6000 More Out of Pocket :Linking the Dots

I have a lot of clients whom are dually eligible re: Medicare and Medicaid. Indeed, those two are managed by CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services). Medicare acts as the primary insurer and Medicaid wraps around and pays for the remainder of the bill. If one has Medicare and Medicaid, there is no co-pay.

All disabled citizens receiving Social Security Disability, for the most part, are dually eligible----that is unless they receive over about $950/ month as per their Disability check in which case, they have to pass through the 'doughtnut hole' in order to get to their Medicaid. These commonly would be people who own something, like a trailer, or a car, and are not completely impoverished.

Therefore, the Republican agenda is to sink even deeper into the mire of poverty not only the disabled but also the lower middle class and middle-middle class whom would not be able to afford payment out of pocket. They say its about saving money and balancing the budget but please tell me what is the worth of your gated community if you are afraid to outside of it for the chaos of the multitudes whom have been undone by your budget policies?

Or, to paraphrase the Bible, what shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world (in terms of his tax savings) if he is bludgeoned by an insane person whom cannot get any mental health care? Better be making some bullet-proof luxury cars. We can, thankfully, depend on our access to guns.

That means that citizens who cannot pay, would not be able to pay, and as per the findings of the Congressional Budget Office, an analysis which ".....found that to get coverage equivalent to what they have now, older Americans would have to pay vastly more out of pocket under the Paul Ryan plan than they would if Medicare as we know it was preserved. Based on the budget office estimates, the typical senios would end up paying around $6000 more out of pocket in the plan's first year of operation." (see: "Vouchercare is not Medicare": NYT: www.nytmes.com/2011/06/06/opinion/06krugman.html)

The Congressional Budget Office's role (see their webpage) is to provide "objective,non-partisan" information to Congress and the public.

People who receive Medicare, if the Republicans have their way, would receive 'premium support payments' (as per the CBO document, otherwise known as 'vouchers') and would have severely truncated services for they would not be able to afford it.

And if you are Medicare only client, who has to go through a 'doughnut hole' in order to get to Medicaid, boy, you would sure move through that quickly-----that is, if you had the thousands of dollars to pay from your pocket in order to get to Medicaid which would be impoverished at the state level by the NC State Legislature Republicans.

Therefore, at the federal level, as per the Republican plan via Paul Ryan (R; Chairman of the House Budget Committe) to create 'vouchers' which citizens would use in lieu of regular Medicare, the Republicans are attempting to create a plan which would utterly fail and further sink mental as well as all other health care. I'd say that they were successful! as per their desire to drown government and successful! at lining the pockets of for-profit industry.

Here is the Congressional Budget Office's letter and analysis to Chairman Ryan: www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/121xx/doc12128/04-05-Ryan_Letter.pdf

For, if we have Republicans at the NC State Legislature level refusing to continue a .1 cents sales tax (which we do)----which is decimating Medicaid and the public school system-----backing up to the US Congress, w/ the House of Representatives led by the Republicans whom want to create 'vouchers' for Medicare, then you might as well drag out the coffin related to NC mental health care.