McMahon has 'all options' on the table for Medicare

McMahon has 'all options' on the table for Medicare
"Linda McMahon may have taken herself out of contention in Connecticut in the past week on the issues of Social Security and Medicare. It's was already looking as though she had topped out in the polls, and after this week, it's looking like she's hell bent on making herself very unpopular with nearly a third of the state's electorate: seniors."

3 Things That May Have Wrecked Mitt Romney's Shot at President | Alternet

3 Things That May Have Wrecked Mitt Romney's Shot at President | Alternet
"Mitt Romney arguably lost Florida , with its heavy concentration of older voters, when he picked as his vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan, the face of the conservative plan to end Medicare as we know it."

STUDY: Medicaid Expansion Would Save Arizona $1.2 Billion And Create Over 20,000 Jobs

STUDY: Medicaid Expansion Would Save Arizona $1.2 Billion And Create Over 20,000 Jobs: A report from the non-partisan Grand Canyon Institute suggests that if Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) rejects Obamacare’s expansion of the Medicaid program, it could take a toll on more than just the low-income residents of her state who struggle to afford health coverage — in fact, it could also cost Arizona potential savings and [...]/p

Linda McMahon doubles down on Social Security sunset, endorses Ryan Medicare plan

Linda McMahon doubles down on Social Security sunset, endorses Ryan Medicare plan
"McMahon is absolutely saying she wants to have the ability to end Social Security. And now she's adding privatizing Medicare into the mix? Raising the retirement age?"

Romney’s Approach To Medicare Reform Will Lead To Higher Costs, Study Finds

Romney’s Approach To Medicare Reform Will Lead To Higher Costs, Study Finds: A new Urban Institute Health Policy Center study finds that premium support models, such as the proposed Romney/Ryan Medicare plan, are more likely to increase excess costs in the program. According to the report, turning Medicare into a “premium support” program would encourage private insurers to draw less costly beneficiaries from traditional Medicare, leading to [...]/p

Why Mitt Romney May End Up Wishing He Never Picked Paul Ryan | Alternet

Why Mitt Romney May End Up Wishing He Never Picked Paul Ryan | Alternet
"Asked whom they trust to deal with the Medicare program, Ohio voters side with Obama over Romney by a 19 percentage-point margin. The president has a 15-point advantage on the issue in Florida and a 13-point lead on it in Virginia. In a separate national poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation released Thursday, Obama’s 17-point lead over Romney on Medicare is larger than it has been across public polls all year."

Tommy Thompson Promises To 'Do Away With Medicare and Medicaid'

Tommy Thompson Promises To 'Do Away With Medicare and Medicaid'
"After standing tall in support of Mitt Romney's 47 percent comments, this secret video of Tommy Thompson promising TeaBirchers he'll do away with the "rest of the entitlements" comes up. Oh, the things they say and how they wish this wasn't the age of YouTube."

GOP Senate Candidate Proposes A ‘Sunset Provision’ For Social Security That Would Jeopardize It’s Longterm Future

GOP Senate Candidate Proposes A ‘Sunset Provision’ For Social Security That Would Jeopardize It’s Longterm Future: Linda McMahon, the former CEO of the World Wrestling Federation and current Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Connecticut, told a Tea Party gathering earlier this year that she would be open to a change in Social Security that would introduce a “sunset provision,” effectively attaching an expiration date to the social program. The remarks [...]/p

Linda McMahon thinks it's time to 'sunset' Social Security

Linda McMahon thinks it's time to 'sunset' Social Security
"Like Thompson, McMahon was telling her people, the tea partiers, what she really intends to do. And, like all Republicans, that's ending the entitlement programs."

Paul Ryan's Secret Tape Is Worse Than Mitt's

Paul Ryan's Secret Tape Is Worse Than Mitt's
"Ryan truly believes, just like his heroine Rand, that Medicare is an evil socialist, collectivist plot to undermine individual autonomy."

Ryan's 'Secret' Tape Is Even More Extreme Than Romney's | Alternet

Ryan's 'Secret' Tape Is Even More Extreme Than Romney's | Alternet
"When they  booed Paul Ryan at the American Association of Retired Persons last week, most people didn't even know he called Medicare and Social Security "third party or socialist-based systems." Or that he  said he wants to privatize them in order to "break the back" of a "collectivist philosophy."

On recently transcribed remarks from an audio recording, Ryan said his ideas and values were shaped by an extremist author who thought humanity must "reject the morality of altruism," and that his opinions on monetary policy are guided by a fictional speech which says "the words 'to make money' hold the essence of human morality." That author says the "collectivist philosophy" Ryan ascribes to Social Security and Medicare is a "looters' credo." By that reckoning, anyone who receives assistance from the government -- including disabled combat veterans or impoverished children -- is a "looter"."

Top GOP Senate Candidate Just Says It: 'Do Away With Medicare, Medicaid' | Common Dreams

Top GOP Senate Candidate Just Says It: 'Do Away With Medicare, Medicaid' | Common Dreams
"The video has only now surfaced and its a blockbuster -- especially in the aftermath of the release last week of a similar video that saw Republican presiential nominee Mitt Romney dismissing 47 percent of Americans as a "dependent" class unworthy of Republican consideration.

Just to repeat: a top Republican Senate candidate has been caught on video talking about how he would “DO AWAY WITH MEDICAID, AND MEDICARE.”

Just to repeat: “DO AWAY WITH MEDICAID, AND MEDICARE.”

It should be understood that Thompson is no fringe-dwelling Todd Akin. As the longtime Republican governor of a swing state, he’s worked with every GOP president since Ronald Reagan, and he oversaw social programs for the Bush-Cheney administration. This year, he’s one of his party’s premier recruits in the fight to retake the Senate. Indeed, the race between Thompson and Democratic Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin could decide which party controls the chamber.

Thompson is, as well, closely aligned with Paul Ryan. The Senate candidate’s ties to Ryan’s politically connected family go back to when the Republican vice-presidential nominee was a child. Thompson has been a Ryan booster from the very beginning of the younger Wisconsinite’s career in electoral politics—when Thompson was the powerful governor of the state and Ryan was organizing his first Congressional bid."

Programs To Train More Family Doctors Will Complement Health Reform

Programs To Train More Family Doctors Will Complement Health Reform: Major Obamacare provisions aim to lower national health care costs by encouraging primary care and healthy living habits. The hope is that by having patients take advantage of preventative care provisions and communicating with their practitioners, Americans will live healthier lifestyles that do not require long-term, expensive care. But Obamacare’s funding for community health clinics [...]/p

GOP Senate Candidate Tommy Thompson: ‘Who Better Than Me… To Do Away With Medicaid and Medicare?’

GOP Senate Candidate Tommy Thompson: ‘Who Better Than Me… To Do Away With Medicaid and Medicare?’: Republicans and their defenders have claimed that the GOP’s massive proposed cuts to the nation’s health care safety net will not eliminate Medicare or Medicaid. The Romney campaign even released talking points claiming GOP proposals would “strengthen Medicare” shortly after they announced that Paul Ryan, the author of a 2011 plan to phase out Medicare, [...]/p

‘Obscene and arrogant’: Bernie Sanders reacts to Mitt Romney’s 47 percent comments

Ryan Lies And Gets Booed At The AARP

Ryan Gets Booed At The AARP: The address didn’t go over well. One man called Ryan a “liar” and the audience repeatedly booed his critique of President Obama and health reform.

Senator Bernie Sanders Eviscerates Mitt Romney's 47% Secret Video

Bernie Sanders Eviscerates Mitt Romney's 47% Secret Video

Private Insurance Premiums Could Increase In States Opting Out Of Medicaid Expansion

Private Insurance Premiums Could Increase In States Opting Out Of Medicaid Expansion: The cost-benefit analysis of the Republican governors opting out of the Medicaid expansion under the health care reform law has always been questionable. Although foregoing the Medicaid expansion allows governors to avoid a slight burden on their state budgets — one that will be modest even under pessimistic predictions — it also means failing to [...]/p

Obamacare Will Help Seniors Save $5,000 Over The Next Decade

Obamacare Will Help Seniors Save $5,000 Over The Next Decade: According to a new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the health care reform law will help the average American under a traditional Medicare plan save $5,000 from 2010 to 2022. Medicare beneficiaries who have high prescription costs will save even more — over $18,000 in the same time period — [...]/p

Hiding In Plain Sight - Paul Ryan's Plan to Privatize SS

Hiding In Plain Sight - Paul Ryan's Plan to Privatize SS
"A writer for America, the Catholic weekly, decided to transcribe the rest of Paul Ryan's 2005 speech at the Atlas Society (which was conveniently shortened on their website), and guess what he came up with? Ryan's stated objective to privatize Social Security and Medicare! Or, as Ryan put it, to convert them from “collectivism” to believers in a “capitalistic individualistic” philosophy. Gee, you have to wonder why the Atlas Society left that out of the transcript."

Paul Ryan Called for Ending Social Security in Speech to Ayn Rand Fans | Alternet

Paul Ryan Called for Ending Social Security in Speech to Ayn Rand Fans | Alternet
"So, what would be more articulate way of making that point? How about describing Social Security and Medicare as “collectivist” and “socialist” systems that must end, as Ryan did in a 2005 address he delivered to the Atlas Society, a group of Ayn Rand devotees, asreported Wednesday on the Web site of the Jesuit magazine, America"

Obamacare Strengthened Medicare Advantage To Provide More Low-Income Americans With Affordable Coverage

Obamacare Strengthened Medicare Advantage To Provide More Low-Income Americans With Affordable Coverage: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a news release today announcing that President Obama’s health reform law has successfully increased enrollment and decreased premiums in Medicare Advantage over the last two years. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius noted that the program has seen a nearly 30 percent increase in enrollment and a 10 [...]/p

Proof Romney & Ryan are Consumed by the Libertarian Utopian "Me Society"

Mitt Romney's "off the cuff" comments caught on tape are the latest proof that he - and Paul Ryan are consumed by the selfish "me society" preached by Ayn Rand.

Paul Ryan targeted Social Security and Medicare as 'collectivist' barriers to dog-eat-dog society

Paul Ryan targeted Social Security and Medicare as 'collectivist' barriers to dog-eat-dog society
"If that sounds like the siren song of privatization designed to lure the nation into shattering two of the most successful and crucial social programs in America, it's because it is.

It is what Ryan and Romney have in mind, have, at least in Ryan's case, had in mind all along when talking about "government-dependent" Americans. The solution: Turn everything over to individuals. Make us into a you're-on-your-own society, as Bill Clinton described it in his convention speech in Charlotte. That is exactly the way things were when those programs were initiated 75 years and 45 years ago. A dog-eat-dog society. A let-the-devil-take-the-hindmost society. The good old days."

Romney blames the 47%, lets Wall Street off the hook

Romney blames the 47%, lets Wall Street off the hook
"In the wake of the public airing of Mitt Romney's remarks on the "moochers," Romney is arguing that the problem remains too much government, especially for the 47%. Things like Social Security, Medicare and veterans benefits."

POLL: Obama Has More Than A Ten Point Lead On Medicare In Virginia

POLL: Obama Has More Than A Ten Point Lead On Medicare In Virginia: A new Washington Post poll asked key swing state voters in Virginia which presidential candidate — regardless of the one they actually support — they “trust to do a better job determining the future of the Medicare program.” Among respondents who reported that they are likely to vote in November, 52 percent prefer Obama’s leadership [...]/p

House GOP Wants Americans’ Premiums to Help Fund Insurance Company Profits Instead Of Health Care

House GOP Wants Americans’ Premiums to Help Fund Insurance Company Profits Instead Of Health Care: Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee will consider legislation repealing a crucial Obamacare consumer protection that requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of their premium dollars on actual care rather than overhead or profits. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explains that the bill, H.R. 1206, amounts to a massive [...]/p

Atlanta Embraces Tenets of Obamacare, Cuts Health Costs by $3.2 Million

Atlanta Embraces Tenets of Obamacare, Cuts Health Costs by $3.2 Million: The city’s approach to Medicare Advantage is exactly the kind of cost-saving measure that President Obama’s health reform law encourages. The Medicare Advantage program, which allows beneficiaries to enroll into a private plan rather than the traditional fee-for-service Medicare program, has a history of over-paying insurance providers. To address this issue, Obamacare diverts about $716 billion from Medicare by eliminating useless subsidies to insurance companies and providers under Medicare Advantage. Although the GOP has tried its best to convince the country that Obama’s cuts to Medicare Advantage are weakening the Medicare program, they are actually intended to stem the tide of excess payments — and help ensure that cities like Atlanta won’t have to switch to private insurance to save on Medicare Advantage costs.

Romney demands that seniors take 'personal responsibility'

Romney demands that seniors take 'personal responsibility'
"Romney's message is that in order to lower taxes for his wealthy friends he will demand that retirees who worked hard, played by the rules, saved for retirement and counted on the promise of Social Security and Medicare, "take personal responsibility" and pay higher taxes, receive less in Social Security and trade in the promise of Medicare for Ryan's Vouchercare, ending Medicare as we know it.

Tax cuts for the rich. Tax hikes and benefits cuts for seniors and the undeserving rest of us."

What Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney don't want seniors to know

What Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney don't want seniors to know
"Unfortunately for them, they also apparently believe that a lot of seniors just aren't paying attention this election, and will believe their lies about what they plan to do. Which is, of course, to start making seniors pay more once they repeal Obamacare.The Center for American Progress shows how much current and future retirees would be paying under Romney/Ryan."

How Paul Ryan Would Decimate the New Deal | The Nation

How Paul Ryan Would Decimate the New Deal | The Nation
"Ryan’s vision for reforming the social safety net can be explained in three verbs: he wants to block grant Medicaid,voucherize Medicare and privatize Social Security. Yes, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security would likely still exist, but those changes would mean a profound difference for the average person who receives government benefits over his or her lifetime. Let’s look at what happens to Jessie, a low-income woman living in Pennsylvania who is eligible for all three programs at different periods of her life."

House GOP Budget Would Cost States Ten Times More Than Expanding Medicaid

House GOP Budget Would Cost States Ten Times More Than Expanding Medicaid: One aspect of the Affordable Care Act still in contention is the law’s expansion of Medicaid — the health care program for the disabled, seniors, and low-income Americans that’s jointly funded by the federal government and the states. The Supreme Court’s ruling on health care reform back in June determined that states could chose to [...]/p

Sick Money: How Mitt Romney's Bain Investments Are Exploding the Deficit and Harming Our Health | Alternet

Sick Money: How Mitt Romney's Bain Investments Are Exploding the Deficit and Harming Our Health | Alternet
"No wonder Mitt Romney's Republicans want to turn Medicare into a voucher system. That would end a government-run program whose oversight has been one of our few protections against the predations of their for-profit companies. Letting the Republicans shut down Medicare would be like letting Al Capone shut down the police department."

The Romney-Ryan Plan to Gut Medicaid | Common Dreams

The Romney-Ryan Plan to Gut Medicaid | Common Dreams
"There are few better ways to really stick it to the poor than cutting off their access to health care, but that's exactly what the Romney-Ryan ticket's proposed cuts to Medicaid would do."

Dear Romney, We’d Like To Pay Attention To Details Of Your Medicare Plan – Just Figure Them Out First

Dear Romney, We’d Like To Pay Attention To Details Of Your Medicare Plan – Just Figure Them Out First: For a current senior, we estimate that these system-wide effects would cost an additional $26,600. For seniors reaching age 67 in 2050, these effects would cost an additional $106,000. Though Romney claims that “nothing will change” for current seniors, both the CAPAF report and a recent Kaiser Family Foundation report find that repealing Obamacare will increases costs for seniors and strip them of important benefits currently provided under the law. Repeal would in fact accelerate the projected insolvency of Medicare to just four years from now.

Study: GOP Plan To Repeal Obamacare Would Increase Costs For Seniors

Study: GOP Plan To Repeal Obamacare Would Increase Costs For Seniors: If Republicans were to succeed in repealing Obamacare, seniors would pay significantly more for health care, according to a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation. And Medicare would be insolvent in four years — by 2016 instead of by 2024 under the Affordable Care Act — because of increased spending. “Because the ACA is [...]/p

Faith Leaders Urge Republican Governors To Expand ‘Pro-Life’ Medicaid Program

Faith Leaders Urge Republican Governors To Expand ‘Pro-Life’ Medicaid Program: Over 100 national, state, and local faith leaders are imploring Republican governors to have the “wisdom and integrity” to expand their states’ Medicaid programs to cover an estimated 17 million low-income Americans who cannot currently afford health insurance. A joint statement issued by the religious leaders calls on lawmakers to accept the Medicaid expansion under [...]/p

Obamacare Has Saved Consumers $2.1 Billion

Obamacare Has Saved Consumers $2.1 Billion: Regulations in Obamacare set up a program to review insurance rate increases and instituted an 80/20 rule, requiring insurance companies to spend no more than 20 percent of consumer premiums on profits and administrative costs. And since September 2011, insurance providers have had justify premium rate increase of more than 10 percent for individual and [...]/p

President Obama Acceptance Speech at 2012 Democratic National Convention

President Barack Obama accepts the Democratic Presidential nomination at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC.

Florida Retiree Carol Berman Talks Health Care Reform at DNC

Vice President Joe Biden At The DNC Full Speech

PERRspectives: Clinton Paints GOP Threat to Medicaid by the Numbers

PERRspectives: Clinton Paints GOP Threat to Medicaid by the Numbers
"None of what Bill Clinton highlighted in Charlotte is anything new. After all, Bloomberg News, the Washington Post and McClatchy have been reporting for months that the Romney-Ryan proposals would hurt the poor, the elderly and the disabled. But sometimes, you need a Big Dog to teach Americans about the Republicans' new tricks."

Biden on Medicare

North Dakota Senate Candidate Loudly Booed For Promise To Privatize Social Security

North Dakota Senate Candidate Loudly Booed For Promise To Privatize Social Security: Rep. Rick Berg (R-ND) defended his plan to privatize Social Security at a Senate debate yesterday, prompting loud and sustained boos from audience members. During the North Dakota Broadcasters debate in Bismarck, Berg’s opponent in the Senate race, Heidi Heitkamp, attacked the congressman for supporting privatizing Social Security. “When you say ‘I’m going to fix [...]/p

Bill Clinton Speaks At The DNC

Bill Clinton talks about the economy, jobs, Health Care, Medicare and more.

Biden on Romney-Ryan Medicare plan: It's 'vouchercare'

Biden on Romney-Ryan Medicare plan: It's 'vouchercare'
"Do we really want an America in which seniors are required to read the fine print of private insurance policies—assuming they can even find an affordable one given the size of their voucher? Paul Ryan would no doubt begin his defense of that idea by saying "it gets wonky," but the reality is that it doesn't. If you think this is an acceptable burden to shift onto seniors, you're totally out of touch."

Mayors Protest Maine Governor’s Plan To Cut Medicaid

Mayors Protest Maine Governor’s Plan To Cut Medicaid: Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) will wait until after the November election to decide if his state will expand its Medicaid program under Obamacare, but in the meantime, mayors of six cities in Maine are protesting LePage’s Medicaid cuts that will eliminate coverage for about 26,000 people in the state. The legislature passed the $20 [...]/p

GOP Rep. Burgess Suggests Medicare Is Unconstitutional

GOP Rep. Burgess Suggests Medicare Is Unconstitutional: At a panel during last week’s Republican National Convention, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) strongly suggested that he believes Medicare is unconstitutional — before going on to say that its constitutionality doesn’t matter so long as it is used to achieve conservative ends. Burgess’ comment arose during a discussion of whether the Constitution permits the federal [...]/p

GOP Platform Declares Medicaid Unconstitutional

GOP Platform Declares Medicaid Unconstitutional: Almost immediately after President Obama took office, many Republican politicians seized upon a distorted vision of the Constitution’s Tenth Amendment that would leave America nearly incapable of governing itself. Indeed, top Republicans — including U.S. Senators, governors and members of Congress — have claimed that everything from Social Security to Medicare to federal disaster relief [...]/p