While Democrats are trying to move toward single payer health care (not quickly enough), and planned to allow people to join Medicare at 55 and add a public option to Obamacare, Republicans have their own series of health plans, known as RepubliCare. The primary feature of RepubliCare is the RepubliCare Death Benefit. If you can’t pay for health care, you get to die, at no additional charge. Lyin’ Ryan (R-WI) plans to implement RepubliCare for seniors.
There’s a lot that you should know about the Republican Medicare plan, a plan that Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) hopes to enact shortly after President-elect Donald Trump takes office, but the entirety of it can be summarized in just one sentence.
Republicans want to charge seniors a lot more for inferior health coverage.
Over the last half-decade, Ryan has proposed several different versions of the Republican plan to charge seniors a lot more for inferior health care. There are important differences among these versions. Some would phase out Medicare entirely over the course of many years, while others would merely make the system more inefficient and drive out-of-pocket costs for seniors much higher. The most recent version is impossible to fully evaluate because it lacks important details — like numbers.
As Jonathan Cohn and Jeffrey Young quipped about the GOP’s overall health care package, “Speaker Paul Ryan wants to replace 20 million people’s health insurance with 37 pages of talking points.”
Republicans want to charge seniors a lot more for inferior health coverage.
Despite the differences, however, all of Ryan’s proposals would impose basically the same structure. Republicans hope to repeal Medicare — the single-payer system that most seniors rely on to cover their health costs — and replace it with a voucher. This voucher will cover some of the cost of inferior coverage that will leave seniors with higher out-of-pocket costs than they would have paid under traditional Medicare. As a bonus, the total cost of paying for an individual senior’s care — that is, the government’s share of the costs plus the individual’s share — could rise as much as 40 percent.
Inferior coverage at a higher price — that’s the Republican health plan. And it will become law unless three of the 52 Republican senators who will come to Washington in January decide to stop it…
From <Think Progress>
Please click through for the rest of the article. Frankly, if he gets his way, there is a strong possibility that it will kill me, so I have a special reason to want it stopped.
13 Responses to “RepubliCare for Seniors”
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Inferior products/services at higher prices is the goal of ALL privatization, which is why it needs to be stopped wherever it rears its ugly head. Health care is no exception, and it could be argued is the poster child for this abominable Republican trend. In your shoes I would be even more worried than I am, frankly.
Yes, it's already started!! Crap.
Thanks, Tom.
It is my humble oopinion that Lyin' Ryan, and the GOPigs, are looking for ways to get their hands on the Medicare funds, in privatizing it, and then having the "Private Sector" charge all sorts of fees, and other stuff…to take still more money from the ordinary citzen and send it up the economic ladder.
The GOP has wanted to end ALL of the programs that began in the New Deal ever since it began! "A chicken in every pot?" No, they want to let us become very, very familiar with good, old fashioned gruel!
The truly sad thing is that the majority of dolts that voted him are going to be suffering the most.
Not sure Schadenfreude is enough of a balm for that sad fact.
I'm not sure any of the dolts will be suffering more than TC. My former employer switched to a system that works great for me, but I shudder to think of people who have any actual health problems. I just need some expensive prescriptions and a few office visits to make sure they are still working the way they are supposed to, and all of that is fully paid for. For now. For this year. The future is still in the future.
Remember, the Republicans have all ready stopped Medicare from bargaining over drug prices, this is next. When my mother got over her first bout with C diff this summer, the hospital had to discharge her, even though she couldn't sit up without two people lifting her She was transferred to a temporary rehab center, that had a bed open. She was there five days, about all they did was give her clean sheets and three lousy meals a day. We got the EOB today for that five days, $6,440.00. Fortunately, she has insurance throught the UMWA so we won't be billed a lot,but this is criminal. Imagine how much worse it will be if Ryan gets his way.
Cardinal Roger Mahony 1998:(Archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 to 2011 his retirement) "Any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members; the last, the least, the littlest."
All those "good" Christians, "good" Catholics like Paul Ryan should pay attention to Mahony. They are about to deny vital services to people who can least afford to lose them. This can't be allowed to happen!
For want of better: OMG, TomCat. No wonder you're sleeping so poorly.
Is there any chance that three of 52 Republicans have just enough humanity in them to vote against it? Dumb question, I know 😥 😥
I hope so, but I'm not counting on it.
Having read today's lead article, I observe that there are probably Republicans whose record is more progessive than Manchin's. But maybe not three. And I wouldn't gamble on Manchin's vote anyway.
If possible, I probably despise Ryan even more than Trump – Butt-licker, lyin Ryan who would sell his own grandmother if the price was right. May he reap just what he sows and soon.
I can't read anymore! My healthcare is in their hands and I know it's going to cost a LOT more! And I don't know where it will come from. I guess I'll just have to give in to the grim reaper and let God sort it out!
I hope that they all reap what they have down in triple measures!
Thanks all! Hugs!