ROMNEY/RYAN MEDICARE REFORM PLAN

Romney/ryan medicare reform plan

OVERVIEW: 

"President Obama has had three years in office, during which time he has attacked every serious proposal to preserve and strengthen America’s entitlement programs while enacting cuts to Medicare and putting in place a bureaucratic board that one day may ration the care available through the program. 

Mitt Romney has laid out the approach he would take to modernizing America’s entitlement programs, guaranteeing their continued vitality for future generations. Mitt’s proposals would not affect today’s seniors or those nearing retirement, and they would not raise taxes. But he proposes that tomorrow’s Medicare should give beneficiaries a generous defined contribution, or “premium support,” and allow them to choose between private plans and traditional Medicare.

Mitt’s plan honors commitments to current seniors while giving the next generation an improved program that offers the freedom to choose what their coverage under Medicare should look like. Instead of paying providers directly for medical services, the government’s role will be to help future seniors pay for an insurance option that provides coverage at least as good as today’s Medicare, and to offer traditional Medicare as one of the insurance options that seniors can choose. 

With insurers competing against each other to provide the best value to customers, efficiency and quality will improve and costs will decline. Seniors will be allowed to keep the savings from less expensive options or choose to pay more for costlier plans."

Key Elements of Mitt’s Plan

• Nothing changes for current seniors or those nearing retirement
• Medicare is reformed as a premium support system, meaning that existing spending is repackaged as a fixed-amount benefit to each senior that he or she can use to purchase an insurance plan
• All insurance plans must offer coverage at least comparable to what Medicare provides today
• If seniors choose more expensive plans, they will have to pay the difference between the support amount and the premium price; if they choose less expensive plans, they can use any leftover support to pay other medical expenses like co-pays and deductibles
• “Traditional” fee-for-service Medicare will be offered by the government as an insurance plan, meaning that seniors can purchase that form of coverage if they prefer it; however, if it costs the government more to provide that service than it costs private plans to offer their versions, then the premiums charged by the government will have to be higher and seniors will have to pay the difference to enroll in the traditional Medicare option
• Lower income seniors will receive more generous support to ensure that they can afford coverage; wealthier seniors will receive less support
• Competition among plans to provide high quality service while charging low premiums will hold costs down while also improving the quality of coverage enjoyed by seniors

For More information, including Frequently Asked Questions About Governor Romney's  Plan, GO HERE