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Medicare will be bankrupt in eight years
Regarding Sen. Tom Harkin’s article in the Aug. 17 Gazette, “Ryan Budget would end Medicare as we know it,” he is right. It would save it. Medicare as we know it will be bankrupt in as little as eight years.
What Harkin neatly avoids saying is to finance ObamaCare, $716 billion will be stripped from Medicare. And how to handle the obvious ensuing Medicare shortages? Easy, put the decisions of what medical services will be provided and what will be cut, by a panel of 15 unelected individuals.
The Ryan plan doesn’t strip Medicare of $716 billion of ObamaCare, which most Americans don’t even want. Instead, seniors 55 years and older would retain existing benefits with younger Americans given more options with continued quality care. The end result is Medicare would be sustainable.
Harkin writes that there is a fundamental choice this November for voters. That’s for sure.
Bob Bevenour
Cedar Rapids
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Bob…you see it..I see it..millions of republicans and a lot of other see it…
.why can’t libs see or get it…
“Easy, put the decisions of what medical services will be provided and what will be cut, by a panel of 15 unelected individuals.”
As I understand the bill, the IPAB can’t directly cut services. The only power they have is to set reimbursement rates, which is even more insidious.
So they can’t say procedures X,Y and Z will no longer be covered, but they can say those procedures will only be reimbursed at a level below cost. That means either medical providers lose money on the procedures, they stop doing those procedures, or the patient has to pay for it themselves. But in any case, the government “cuts cost” and potentially (indirectly) cuts services as well.