Quick quiz: Who said this about Medicare? “With an aging population and rising health care costs, we are spending too fast to sustain the program. And if we don’t gradually reform the system while protecting current beneficiaries, it won’t be there when future retirees need it. We have to reform Medicare to strengthen it.”
It wasn’t Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI), Mitt Romney’s new running mate, who has been vocal about the need for Medicare reform. It was President Barack Obama, just last year.
As the debate reignites over the government’s health care plan for seniors, which has a long-term unfunded liability of nearly $37 trillion, two things are important to remember:
1. Obamacare has already “ended Medicare as we know it.”
2. There is bipartisan consensus for moving Medicare toward a premium support model, meaning that the government would make a fixed contribution toward each enrollee’s plan, but the enrollee would have the freedom to choose which health care plan he or she wants.
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