Rep. Paul Ryan Budget Plan Would Increase Health Care Costs: Bloomberg Study

WASHINGTON -- A new study shows Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan will do little to reduce health care costs, Bloomberg News reports.

The study, authored by Bloomberg Government, claims that key health care provisions in Ryan's budget are ineffectual in terms of cutting costs, according to the report.

In his budget proposal, Ryan (R-Wis.) presents a revamped Medicare plan in which individuals would receive "premium support payments" that subsidize private health care plans. However, the wealthiest 2 percent of beneficiaries would receive only a third as much in these payments as others, and the following 6 percent of beneficiaries would receive only half as much.

"If you're wealthy and you've got substantial assets beyond your Social Security, we're going to expect you to actually pay the cost of your premium. But it's not going to affect anybody in the middle class or below," said House Speaker John Boehner in an exclusive interview Monday night on Fox News Channel's "Hannity."

Ryan's plan aims to decrease the government's share of health care costs and increase those of the beneficiary. The theory is that increasing an individual's financial stake in health care will drive down unnecessary procedures and costs.

But according to Bloomberg, the study shows Ryan's plan will drive up costs to both beneficiaries and the government alike by curbing the assistance that goes to the wealthiest seniors. Increased expenses and limited returns for the top 8 percent of beneficiaries gives them an incentive to opt out of Medicare altogether, reports Bloomberg, in turn forcing those in lower income brackets to make up the difference.

While the Bloomberg study focuses on the effects of this one provision, other reports have dogged the Ryan plan as a whole.

An April report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that while Ryan's plan would dramatically reduce federal spending on health care, total health care costs would skyrocket. By 2022, alleges the CBO, overall health care costs under the plan would be a staggering 34 percent greater than they would be as Medicare currently stands, and would rise to 40 percent by 2030.

As former Director of the OMB Peter Orszag puts it in a piece for Bloomberg, "health-care costs would not be reduced on the backs of seniors; they would be raised on the backs of seniors."

Comments

[whosallen]

12:10 PM on 06/30/2011

So - there must be someone out there who thinks Ryan's plan shows how much he cares about this country and its people [actually it does]? Someone? Some rich donors who want to go on record instead of hiding in anonymous PACs? Tea Party folks? Blood relatives? Anyone! Come on surely someone out there will support pushing aspiring seniors into poverty so insurance companies can make more money.

[Gestas]

11:49 AM on 06/30/2011

Paul Ryan needs to spend some time in a Think Tank...One with 8 ft. of water in it.

[den1953]

09:53 AM on 06/30/2011

Anyone think Ryan cares if those insurance corporations get some extra income while he fixes the economy? Nice to see those patches getting bigger on our corporate banner waving politicians!

[Blueneck]

09:32 AM on 06/30/2011

The math is pretty simple. If you are making $35K a year and pay about $4K a year in health insurance premiums, you are paying a bit over 10% of your income on heath insurance. If you are making $1M a year, then you are paying 0.4% of your income to health insurance. The "red tape" of this crazy "clip-n-save" coupon program is then probably not worth your while. You would (or I would, if I were this hypothetical millionaire) opt out and self insure. It is certainly not rocket science. Decrease the size of the insurance pool, and you decrease the money pool too. Premiums will go up - guaranteed. Services would be cut, and deductibles would go up - guaranteed. The Ryan plan is cynical, selfish, and a quite sociopathic, in my opinion.

[den1953]

09:54 AM on 06/30/2011

F&F and like your av!

[MDCA]

08:57 AM on 06/30/2011

Everything Republicans do, costs. Look at what Bush did to this country.

[den1953]

09:55 AM on 06/30/2011

They have a tendency not to care it isn't there money...........

[dmsdzinr]

09:58 AM on 06/30/2011

The ENTIRE TP/GOP is exactly like the clown in the USPS commercial. It is NOT their money, so they honestly do NOT care. faved

[jmac44]

11:00 PM on 07/07/2011

I thing its time to organize and MARCH on Washington DC. The French Revolution when the "citizens" took back their government from the top 2%, is exactly what we need to be doing. If GBeck can have a rally with all his BS, then I think we need to do the same thing. Let's get some buses loaded up and visit the morons that are running us into the ground and tell them how WE want OUR government run....

[Hopskippy]

08:35 AM on 06/30/2011

Duh, that is the whole point of the Ryan bill.

[exclintonsupporter]

08:24 AM on 06/30/2011

DEMS...get out the message...ADS, ADS and more ADS...PEOPLE wake up...if it's a GOP plan...guaranteed, you are going to get SCREWED somewhere in the process....

[Tikiman2012]

07:44 AM on 06/30/2011

I don't know why people in this town keep voting for this idiot. Must be a home town hero kind of craziness. We need him voted out NOW!!

[Hopskippy]

08:36 AM on 06/30/2011

It's called stupidity. Its really hard to fix that.

[Kate Zeiss]

07:20 AM on 06/30/2011

Surprise, surprise. An amateur economist produces an amateur budget plan, who'd have thought . . . ?

[Mikel Moore]

10:31 AM on 06/30/2011

Or, a dedicated Objectivist pursues the antidemocratic views of Rand and seeks to purge anything that resembles charity or altruism from government functions. He doesn't really care about the budget.

[BankOfHell]

06:44 AM on 06/30/2011

Why doesn't his wife get on him about his weird facial expressions?

[Andrew Wojtkowski]

08:32 AM on 06/30/2011

It's not that. HP posters are so amateurish that they can't even be bothered to use more than one stock photo.

[jmac44]

11:03 PM on 07/07/2011

I dont know, Andrew. They say a "picture's worth a thousand words". Looks accurate to me......

[democratsaint]

06:28 AM on 06/30/2011

we had a glimpse of a voucher system created by the right.the digital converter.
here is how it was supposed to work ,you get a voucher for $40 go to the store buy the converter and they deduct $40 from the cost,sounds simple how can the right screw THAT up. oh they did.
here is how it worked. you could ONLY buy 1 TYPE of converters,that converter sold for $65 in every store,so in essence you paid $25 for the converter,the problem was that right NEXT to the converter was a dvd that also did digital conversion it sold for $28 dollars,but the voucher was not good for it.instead of getting a converter for FREE and only costing the gvt $28 you had to PAY the $25 and the gvt HAD to pay the $40.
that's how the voucher or any voucher set up by the right would work.they would just add the voucher to what they want you to pay and pocket the voucher as profits.the consumer will be screwed ,the gvt will be screwed and corporations will make out like a bandit. the vision of the right.

[joeThibo]

07:43 AM on 06/30/2011

I just love how there are those who can describe the ability of people to make a choice in life with funds confiscated by the government to supply health care in the senior years. Just where do people get the mentality that a govt knows best when almost everything they do is wrong.

[BCinVA]

08:45 AM on 06/30/2011

The Government doesn't confiscate anything. The Government is the people operating under the rules set by the people through the constitution and legislation. As a nation we have agreed that to have a civilized country we should all chip in to secure the things a civilized society needs. Military, infrastructure, minimal safety nets for retirement, and medical needs for example. The problem is there are those among us who don't want to participate. They want to keep every penny and are not willing to willingly contribute to support our system. This is the great divide in America today. Those who want a great country and those who want a great country for a few.

[jmac44]

11:12 PM on 07/07/2011

I suggest that these self righteous morons take a annual income scenario, pay a mortgage, car, bills, etc then create a health issue using REAL COSTS and see how they manage on a voucher system. Problem with these jacka--, are most of them dont even know how much min wage is, much less working with the middleclass finances.

These guys are set for life. They have great salaries, tax payer health insurance, tax payer pensions and will continue to get it for the rest of their worthless lives... All while fighting tooth and nail to take the pissy little we have left, off of us...

[loco48]

05:56 AM on 06/30/2011

The healthcare debate is a good example of our privitized health care system. It cost the gov. 6% of every medicare dollar spent for health care for administrative cost . Private insurance takes 30% of every health care dollar for profits and administrative cost. That means 94 cents of every dollar goes to actual health care from medicare. Only 70 cents of every private insurance dollar goes to actual health care cost. And people don't understand why private policies have gone up over 70% in the last 10 years?

[Parkite]

09:57 AM on 06/30/2011

They have gone up 700%. Medicare costs have only gone up 400%. So Ryan, tell me why seniors should be in the private sector?

[jmac44]

11:21 PM on 07/07/2011

WHY do we need Insurance Companies? They collect premiums, raise them when profit line dips, denies coverage if it suits them, tells you which medication you can or cannot afford, charge top dollar for drugs...Why do we need them?. CEO BONUSES would go back into the Medicare system instead of some fat cat's pocket...

We dont need them. Medicare works fine, VA Ins works fine, Medicaid works fine, Soc Security works fine. The only downfall is the Medicare fraud from the providers and that needs fixed... I rather take my chances with the government...

[Uhgg]

05:20 AM on 06/30/2011

And Obama care has already increased health care costs

[Russ Kirk]

07:23 AM on 06/30/2011

http://www.timesherald.com/articles/2010/04/27/business/doc4bd66d34dc999549063389.txt
And here's more on that Uhgg. Appears your right on.

[Parkite]

10:00 AM on 06/30/2011

Yep. By a sky rocketing ONE percent.

[Uhgg]

08:52 PM on 06/30/2011

Price Health insurance it went up more than 1% since the HCRA and the cost of drugs has gone up also

[Clevelandinwi]

04:33 AM on 06/30/2011

I think ryan's Medicare plan was formulated at the feet of the koch bros. It reeks of the koch's attitude toward everything.

[Clevelandinwi]

04:28 AM on 06/30/2011

Of course it will. That's the purpose of ruin's plan. More money for the insurance industry, right? That's the first thing I thought of when I saw it. ryan, and his 'ilk', have been in the pocket of these people for a long time.