Ryan Budget Would Drastically Reduce Medicaid Coverage for Millions of Low-Income Citizens

No more social safety net for you
Politics • Views: 22,497

There’s a lot of talk about the Paul Ryan budget and its intended destruction of Medicare — but even more disturbing are the enormous cuts Ryan proposes to make to Medicaid, the system that helps millions of low-income Americans when they need it most: Paul Ryan’s Biggest Budget Cuts Are to Medicaid, Not Medicare.

Paul Ryan’s Medicare overhaul may be the most controversial part of his budget. But the proposed cuts to the program are not the biggest cuts in the plan.

As Ezra notes, Ryan’s cuts to Medicare “are only 60 percent as large as the cuts to Medicaid and other health-care programs.” What’s more, his biggest change to Medicare wouldn’t kick in until 2023—the start date for his voucher-based premium support program. By comparison, Ryan’s cuts to Medicaid are more drastic, and they start sooner: Between 2013 and 2022, it would make nearly $1.4 trillion in cuts to Medicaid that “would almost inevitably result in dramatic reductions in coverage” as well as enrollment, according to the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

Over the next 10 years, the Ryan plan would cut Medicaid by $642 billion by repealing the Affordable Care Act and by $750 billion through new caps on federal spending—a 34 percent cut to Medicaid spending over the next decade, according to Edwin Park of the Center and Budget and Policy Priorities.

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60 comments
1 Sol Berdinowitz  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:36:36am

Soylent Red State?

2 Targetpractice  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:40:17am

And these are only the top of the mountain that is the fail in Ryan's "Plan." Can't wait til the media gets around to asking him how his tax policies would cut the top tax rate to 28%, but still keep things "revenue-neutral" without dumping the tax obligations onto the middle class.

3 Kragar  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:40:39am

OFF THE TABLE!

4 Sol Berdinowitz  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:41:16am

re: #3 Kragar

OFF THE TABLE!

Get off the table, Mabel, the quarter's for the beer!

5 jaunte  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:42:02am

"It is said that the people are revolting."
...
"You said it; and they're dropping like flies, too!"

6 Targetpractice  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:42:07am

re: #3 Kragar

OFF THE TABLE!

Sorry Willard, you already said you'd sign this abomination. Time to face the music.

7 Kragar  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:43:30am

Mitt Romney Calls Paul Ryan’s Medicare Cuts ‘Extraordinary’

Mitt Romney described the Medicare cuts included in Paul Ryan’s budget as “extraordinary,” during his visit to a mining operation in Beallsville, Ohio on Tuesday — just days after his campaign claimed that he would have signed the reductions into law as part of the Ryan blueprint.

The Medicare reductions have become a political lightning rod since Romney named Ryan to the ticket on Saturday. The Affordable Care Act reduces future Medicare spending by $716 between 2013 and 2022 and Ryan maintains the savings in his Medicare proposal. The Romney campaign, however, has tried to gloss over the similarity and attack the president for approving reductions that the Republican runningmate also supports.

8 Targetpractice  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:44:48am

re: #7 Kragar

Mitt Romney Calls Paul Ryan’s Medicare Cuts ‘Extraordinary’

"Extraordinarily bad" is what I think he was going for.

9 Kragar  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:44:54am
10 Gus  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:45:07am

re: #3 Kragar

OFF THE TABLE!

11 Kragar  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:45:19am

re: #8 Targetpractice

Its not just famous, its infamous!

12 dragonath  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:46:18am

Hey, Obama, what does your Magic Crystal Ball have to say about Ryan?

Image: a4221da7-9827-49da-9d36-53a3d1b0fcf6-460.jpeg

● My reply is no

13 Sol Berdinowitz  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:46:23am

re: #11 Kragar

Its not just famous, its infamous!

Notorious is the word we want: Notorious P

14 lawhawk  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:46:39am

KFF's primer on Medicaid is here, including who are recipients of care.

Since we're also talking about Medicare, how it operates, its financing and payout structures, as well as what the effects of PPACA on the program, KFF has a similar primer. Key takeaways for Medicare:
10% of Medicare recipients are responsible for 58% of the expenditures.

In fiscal year 2010, Medicare’s $524 billion in total expenditures represented 15 percent of all federal outlays, exceeded only by Social Security benefits and defense spending, which each accounted for 20 percent (Exhibit 3).
2020, Medicare is projected to reach 17 percent of budget outlays and 4 percent of the GDP.

Workers per beneficiary is dropping from 4 per beneficiary in 2000 to an estimated 2.3 per beneficiary by 2030; indicating a need to adjust Medicare payroll taxes.

Also:

The long-run fate of Medicare depends on solving the larger problem of rising health care costs. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 takes initial steps to use Medicare’s leverage to carve a path that slows cost growth and improves quality, but it will take a sustained effort to play out all the changes required to rein in rising health care costs. There appears to be a consensus among policymakers and stakeholders that Medicare price reductions alone will not work; some set of delivery system reforms will also need to take hold. Further, to address the long-term financing challenges of the HI Trust Fund, and to meet the needs of an aging population, additional revenues will be needed to forestall major Medicare benefit reductions or relatively drastic reductions in provider payments.

(Quoted above are direct from the KFF primer; the other parts are my summations).

15 Sol Berdinowitz  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:46:55am

re: #12 dragonath

Hey, Obama, what does your Magic Crystal Ball have to say about Ryan?

Image: a4221da7-9827-49da-9d36-53a3d1b0fcf6-460.jpeg

● My reply is no

Be careful - not all of the palantirs are accounted for!

16 jaunte  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:47:04am

Paul Ryan can either be an objectivist or a Christian. He can't have it both ways.

17 Lidane  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:48:19am

re: #1 Expand Your Ground

Soylent Red State?

Made from only the finest poor, middle class, and immigrant people around.

///

18 dragonath  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:48:44am

re: #15 Expand Your Ground

So that explains the mole inside Romney's campaign!!

19 Vicious Michigan Union Thug  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:48:52am

And right on schedule, Pamela calls those who oppose her hate signs as "dhimmi jewicidals"

20 lawhawk  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:48:58am

re: #12 dragonath

Hey, Obama, what does your Magic Crystal Ball have to say about Ryan?

Image: a4221da7-9827-49da-9d36-53a3d1b0fcf6-460.jpeg

I see your magic 8 ball and raise you Magic Fireball +3. Obama isn't Gallifreyan, he's Shacklebolt.

21 Targetpractice  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:49:14am

re: #17 Lidane

Made from only the finest poor, middle class, and immigrant people around.

///

I hear the taste varies from person to person.

//

22 S'latch  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:50:20am

I wonder what percent of the people who are on Medicare and Medicaid intend to vote for Romney-Ryan 2012. I bet that number is surprisingly high.

23 Sophia77  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:50:39am

Well we can't have those parasites taking our money for their kids and parents or if they lose their jobs.

If Those People had made better decisions, for example, if they'd chosen their parents more wisely and been born white, they wouldn't need Medicaid.

If Those People had made better decisions and worked harder, they wouldn't have gotten old and sick and poor, and they wouldn't need Medicaid.

If Those People had made better decisions and worked harder, the economy wouldn't have tanked, they wouldn't have lost their jobs and their houses and their stock portfolios, they wouldn't be sick and poor, and they wouldn't need Medicaid.

It's time Those People stopped Sucking On The Federal Teat. The rich need those teats so they can Create Jobs.

Also, poor people need to Cast Off The Chains Of Government Dependence And Stand On Their Own Two Feet. There's no reason granny can't work if she needs housing. There's no reason the kids can't work if they need diabetes medicine or a guide dog. Blind people can do all kinds of useful work. Prisoners too, they can get some of those jobs back from China and Grow The Economy.

Vote for Romney and Ryan and Cast Off Those Chains! Freedom!

24 Gus  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:51:26am
25 Kragar  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:51:43am

Reason #7 Why Obama is not a Christian

Late last year, Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission announced that his organization would be releasing a series of monthly videos leading up to the election detailing "ten new irrefutable proofs that Barack Obama is not a Christian."

Today, Cass released part seven of the series which lays out that Obama has been friendly to Islam while being hostile to Christianity, even though the Bible says that "Islam is the doctrine of demons and originates in Hell." And the reason Obama doesn't believe that America is a Christian nation, the CADC explains, is because he had a "Moo-slum father and step-father":

First thought:

the Bible says that "Islam is the doctrine of demons and originates in Hell."

The Koran was written several centuries after the new testament, so where exactly is the whole section in the Bible about the Koran and how did it get there?

26 Lidane  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:52:10am

re: #22 S'latch

I wonder what percent of the people who are on Medicare and Medicaid intend to vote for Romney-Ryan 2012. I bet that number is surprisingly high.

Keep Obama's gubmit off mah Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security!

Vote Romney/Ryan!

27 Kragar  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:52:34am

re: #12 dragonath

KAAA-MAAAY-AAAA-MAAAY---

28 Targetpractice  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:52:38am

re: #22 S'latch

I wonder what percent of the people who are on Medicare and Medicaid intend to vote for Romney-Ryan 2012. I bet that number is surprisingly high.

Not really surprising. We as a nation have an inborn ability to delude ourselves into thinking that if anything bad will happen, it won't happen to us. Or if it does, that it won't be "that bad."

29 jaunte  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:53:53am

re: #28 Targetpractice

Image: sameold.png

30 The Ghost of a Flea  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:54:26am

re: #25 Kragar

The Koran was written several centuries after the new testament, so where exactly is the whole section in the Bible about the Koran and how did it get there?

31 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:55:28am

re: #25 Kragar

Reason #7 Why Obama is not a Christian


First thought:

the Bible says that "Islam is the doctrine of demons and originates in Hell."

The Koran was written several centuries after the new testament, so where exactly is the whole section in the Bible about the Koran and how did it get there?

Probably under the catch-all part that says that any other religion other than this one is of the Enemy and their followers are to be enslaved, converted, killed, or assimilated in some way to serve, join, at least not hinder the way of God's Chosen.

I think that is standard boilerplate.

32 jaunte  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:55:45am

re: #19 Learned Mother of Zion

And right on schedule, Pamela calls those who oppose her hate signs as "dhimmi jewicidals"

[Embedded content]

She's inventing her own private language.

33 Bulworth  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:56:15am
There’s a lot of talk about the Paul Ryan budget and its intended destruction of Medicare — but even more disturbing are the enormous cuts Ryan proposes to make to Medicaid, the system that helps millions of low-income Americans when they need it most: Paul Ryan’s Biggest Budget Cuts Are to Medicaid, Not Medicare.

This is a really crucial issue. Medicaid pays for nursing home care, for instance, not Medicare.

34 Lidane  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:57:31am

re: #19 Learned Mother of Zion

Will she ever learn that having class =/= being weak?

*consults Magic 8 Ball*

Hmm. "Outlook not so good." Shocka!

35 Gus  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 10:58:58am

re: #25 Kragar

Reason #7 Why Obama is not a Christian

First thought:

the Bible says that "Islam is the doctrine of demons and originates in Hell."

The Koran was written several centuries after the new testament, so where exactly is the whole section in the Bible about the Koran and how did it get there?

Not a delusion... Psychos.

36 jaunte  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:00:04am

Must read:

Stockman: "The greatest regulatory problem — far more urgent that the environmental marginalia Mitt Romney has fumed about — is that the giant Wall Street banks remain dangerous quasi-wards of the state and are inexorably prone to speculative abuse of taxpayer-insured deposits and the Fed’s cheap money. Forget about “too big to fail.” These banks are too big to exist — too big to manage internally and to regulate externally. They need to be broken up by regulatory decree. Instead, the Romney-Ryan ticket attacks the pointless Dodd-Frank regulatory overhaul, when what’s needed is a restoration of Glass-Steagall, the Depression-era legislation that separated commercial and investment banking. "

37 Vicious Michigan Union Thug  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:01:05am

re: #32 jaunte

She's inventing her own private language.

Others speak it as well, including her competitor Ms. Schlussel, and the JIDF guy who thought he was "Defending Israel on the Internet" by calling
Vicious Babushka the c-word.

38 dragonath  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:02:27am

There was a lot of noise about Erskine Bowles supporting Ryan's plan yesterday. What was that all about? Besides making the deficit commission look like a joke, I mean.

39 S'latch  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:02:42am

re: #26 Lidane

re: #28 Targetpractice

I don't know if this answers my question, but according to Ronald Brownstein in "Why Ryan Could Make a Romney Victory Harder:"

"The party increasingly depends on the types of voters who don't like Ryan's plans for Medicare and Social Security."

March 2012 United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll:

Just 19 percent of whites older than 65 endorsed Ryan’s approach, which said “Medicare should be changed to a system where the government provides seniors with a fixed sum of money they could use either to purchase private health insurance or to pay the cost of remaining in the current Medicare program.”

Fully 74 percent of white seniors said instead that “Medicare should continue as it is today, with the government providing health insurance and paying doctors and hospitals directly for the services they provide to seniors.”

Among non-college whites, 63 percent said they preferred the current system, while only 26 percent backed Ryan’s approach. (Ryan’s plan also drew opposition not only from 66 percent of college-educated white women -- consistently the most Democratic-leaning component of the white electorate -- but even 60 percent of college-educated men, an audience usually receptive to anti-government arguments.)

40 S'latch  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:04:55am

It is becoming increasingly evident that Ryan was not really a very wise choice for Romney.

41 Tumulus11  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:05:34am

. Paul Ryan's Christmas wish:

'If states managed to curb health-care spending growth in Medicaid, 14 million beneficiaries would still lose Medicaid coverage under the Ryan plan. And that’s on top of the 11 million Americans who would lose Medicaid coverage because the Ryan plan would repeal Obamacare. So all in all, Ryan’s cuts could mean as many as 30 million Medicaid beneficiaries lose their coverage.'

. 'Are there no prisons?' asked Ryan.

'Plenty of prisons,'' said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

'And the Union workhouses?' demanded Ryan. 'Are they still in operation?'

'They are. Still,' returned the gentleman, 'I wish I could say they were not.'

'The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?' said Ryan.

'Both very busy, sir.'

'Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,' said Ryan. 'I'm very glad to hear it.'

42 Gus  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:06:04am

re: #36 jaunte

Must read:

[Embedded content]

Thread worthy perhaps.

43 Sol Berdinowitz  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:06:12am

re: #40 S'latch

It is becoming increasingly evident that Ryan was not really a very wise choice for Romney.

Interesting phrasing, because it was certainly a choice made for Romney, not by Romney...

44 Targetpractice  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:07:28am

re: #40 S'latch

It is becoming increasingly evident that Ryan was not really a very wise choice for Romney.

As noted, you make it sound like Willard had a choice. He didn't, the Tea Party made it for him, and that's because they absolutely love the Ryan "Plan" and think that it's something they can sell a majority of Americans on.

45 Kragar  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:08:22am

re: #44 Targetpractice

Does it come with wafers?

46 Targetpractice  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:11:51am

re: #45 Kragar

Does it come with wafers?

That, a handy set of bootstraps, and a Bible so that we might get right with the Lord so that he might see fight to bestow salvation upon us yet again.

//

47 Sol Berdinowitz  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:12:00am

re: #45 Kragar

Does it come with wafers?

upding for obscure Monty Python reference.

Of course it doesn't come with wafers, it's a bloody albatross!

48 dragonath  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:13:39am

re: #40 S'latch

It is becoming increasingly evident that Ryan was not really a very wise choice for Romney.

The starbursts crawled out of the TV screen and died in Rich Lowry's ashtray.

49 Kragar  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:14:01am

re: #47 Expand Your Ground

Well, what flavor is it?

50 Gus  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:15:08am

Outrage!

College Station Shooter Posted About Guns, Politics

Thomas “Tres” Caffall, who police say killed two people and injured at least three more in Texas today, left a long online trail. His interests were scattered, including firearms and video games, Glenn Beck and Shakespeare.

51 Kragar  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:16:50am

Log Cabin Republicans Defend Romney-Ryan Ticket For Positions Neither Candidate Holds

The Log Cabin Republicans were quick to defend Paul Ryan on Saturday when Mitt Romney picked him as his vice presidential running mate, despite Ryan’s abysmal voting record on LGBT issues. Now, LCR’s R. Clarke Cooper is again defending the GOP ticket by clinging to Ryan’s one pro-LGBT vote — a vote for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that was preceded immediately by a vote to kill it — with the absurd belief that Romney might change his position and give gay voters a reason to vote Republican.

52 Targetpractice  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:17:33am

I can't remember who it was, think it was Charlie Pierce, who noted that some of the biggest proponents of "austerity" are religious fruitloops who are big into the "suffering is good for the soul" bit, who honestly believe that the answer to America's problems is to make people suffer because that will drive them into the arms of religion and thus into seeking the salvation of God for America's "sins."

53 Gus  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:19:57am

re: #51 Kragar

Log Cabin Republicans Defend Romney-Ryan Ticket For Positions Neither Candidate Holds

Log Cabin Republicans. AKA rich, white and males.

54 S'latch  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:20:13am

re: #48 dragonath

I haven't heard anyone say they have seen any starbursts from Paul Ryan, but in four years, Paul Ryan probably will have a lot more in common with Sarah Palin than anyone else.

55 Bulworth  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:20:36am
Now, LCR’s R. Clarke Cooper is again defending the GOP ticket by clinging to Ryan’s one pro-LGBT vote — a vote for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that was preceded immediately by a vote to kill it — with the absurd belief that Romney might change his position and give gay voters a reason to vote Republican.

Yeah, it makes sense to vote for the team we know is anti-gay over the team that has already (1) ended DADT; (2) refused to defend the DOMA in federal court; and (3) announced its support of gay marriage.

Derp.

56 Targetpractice  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:21:49am

re: #55 Bulworth

Yeah, it makes sense to vote for the team we know is anti-gay over the team that has already (1) ended DADT; (2) refused to defend the DOMA in federal court; and (3) announced its support of gay marriage.

Derp.

Party before country!

57 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:21:52am

re: #55 Bulworth

Yeah, it makes sense to vote for the team we know is anti-gay over the team that has already (1) ended DADT; (2) refused to defend the DOMA in federal court; and (3) announced its support of gay marriage.

Derp.

The priority in the GOP is the team first, then the policy. Anyone who thinks differently has already left.

58 HappyWarrior  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:28:58am

No class warfare there huh.

59 Lidane  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 11:31:51am

re: #51 Kragar

Log Cabin Republicans Defend Romney-Ryan Ticket For Positions Neither Candidate Holds

The Log Cabin Republicans and GOProud make me scratch my head. I seriously don't understand who they think they're aiming for. The Republican party would be much happier if LGBT folks shut up and went back into the closet, or if they all got sent to mental hospitals.

60 funky chicken  Tue, Aug 14, 2012 2:49:12pm

Old people vote, and, sadly, many of them seem quite happy to collect their lovely benefits while screaming that others are lazy and worthless if they need the exact same benefit.


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