Ryan plan

I was never quite sure what the word Demagogue meant until the recent descriptions of Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan were revealed. Remarks like, “it will throw grandma in the street”, and “disabled kids will be left to fend for themselves” are examples of demagoguery. It is taking something you don’t like and exaggerating the negatives until no one likes it.

In order to understand the Ryan plan we first must understand the present Medicare system. Medicare has two main parts, Part A for hospital bills and Part B for doctor bills. There is no charge for Part A and Part B cost $1,157 per year for most. Note that I said most.

If your hospital bill is $20,000 Medicare will only approve part of that amount, on average about 80% or $16,000. The hospital then charges their private pay patience an additional $4,000 to make up the difference. The same thing happens with doctor bills. If your bill is $300 Medicare will approve, say $200 and the doctor must charge his private patience and extra $100. If Medicare approves $200 the pay 80% of that or $160 and most people have a supplemental insurance policy to pick up the other $40.

I said earlier that the cost for most is $1,157 per year but for higher income people the cost goes up reaching a cost of $4,243 per year for individuals whose income is above $214,000. This is the way that the Ryan plan will work.

The first thing to know about the Ryan plan is that is does not affect anyone who is over the age of 55. For those under that age when they become eligible for Medicare at age 65 the benefits will be similar but the payments will change. The exact numbers are not out yet but typically it will look something like this. Your premium will be $1,157 per year but if your income is above $50,000 you will pay an additional $100 per year for every $1,000 over $50,000 you make. So if your income is $60,000 you will pay $2,157 per year instead of $1,157. At $70,000 you pay $3,157 and so on until at $200,000 income you pay $16,157.

When you look at the plan this way you see it is a reasonable approach to saving Medicare. By the way, some suggest that since everyone likes Medicare, why not have Medicare for everyone? If you do that, to whom would the doctors and hospitals charge off their shortages?

Everyone who understands Medicare knows that it restricts treatments and payments for treatments and this will continue under the Ryan plan. The problem is that the official position of Medicare is that they do not restrict treatments