Obama, Ryan at odds on Medicare’s future
THE VILLAGES, Fla. — Who loves Medicare more? President Obama and Mitt Romney’s running mate vied for that distinction Saturday as Medicare became the latest flash point in the presidential campaign.
The issue is dicey for both sides: Obama is steering billions from the entitlement to help pay for the expansion of coverage under his health care law; Paul Ryan is a champion of overhauling Medicare to make the traditional program no longer the mainstay for tomorrow’s seniors — just one of many old-age health insurance choices.
But that didn’t stop them from going head-on.
On a day Romney devoted to raising campaign cash in Massachusetts, Ryan accused Obama of raiding the Medicare “piggy bank” to pay for his health care overhaul, and he warned that hospitals and nursing homes may close as a result. The Wisconsin congressman introduced his 78-year-old mother to an audience of seniors in Florida and defended a program that has provided old-age security for two generations of his own family.
“She planned her retirement around this promise,” Ryan said as Betty Ryan Douglas looked on. “That’s a promise we have to keep.”
Campaigning in New Hampshire, Obama said it’s a promise that the Republican ticket would tear up.
“You would think they would avoid talking about Medicare, given the fact that both of them have proposed to voucherize the Medicare system,” he said in Windham. “But I guess they figure the best defense is to try to go on offense.
Ryan said in Florida: “You want to know what Medicare is saying about this? From Medicare officials themselves: 1 out of 6 of our hospitals and our nursing homes will go out of business as a result of this,” meaning Obama’s Medicare cuts.
That was a far from exact reference to a 2010 analysis by Medicare chief actuary Richard Foster. He said then that roughly 15 percent of hospitals and nursing homes that provide Medicare services could “become unprofitable” over a decade — not necessarily go out of business — thanks to cuts in payments from the government under the health care law.
But Foster’s analysis also said the law would improve key Medicare benefits, solve the “doughnut hole” gap in coverage for seniors, expand health insurance to millions more people, reduce the federal budget deficit and extend the solvency of the government’s hospital insurance trust fund by up to 12 years. Hospitals remain largely on board with the health care law, without apparent fear of closing.