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Home Page > News > Paul Ryan's "Path to Prosperity" will revamp Medicare and Medicaid - VIDEOS

Paul Ryan's "Path to Prosperity" will revamp Medicare and Medicaid - VIDEOS

CATHY HAYES,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, April 5, 2011, 11:59 AM

Updated Tuesday, April 5, 2011, 4:20 PM

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Rep Paul Ryan

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Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who is also the chairman of the House Budget Committee, has introduced the 2012 federal budget that will transform Medicare and Medicaid - the two programs that provide health for a significant portion of the population of the United States.

Ryan's plan "The Path to Prosperity" aims to slash $6 trillion from the budget over ten years. Under his Medicaid will be changed from a government-run insurance to a system of block grants distributed to states.

Medicare would essentially turn into system where the government would provide vouchers for health care. The funds would go directly to the insurer rather than the consumer. The government would give private health insurers a set amount of money. The change to Medicare would go into effect in 2022.
Although this is viewed a risky proposal Ryan and the GOP argued that the changes are necessary.

Ryan told CBS "This is a plan not only to pay off our debt over time, but to get the budget under control to keep the government going…The sooner we tackle the problems, the better off all of us are…We can't keep kicking the can down the road."

He also released a video online today focusing on the future of the nation's debt. He says these changes are necessary to keep the country going.

In the video he says "Washington has not been telling you the truth…If we don't reform spending on government health and retirement programs, we have zero hope of getting our spending and as a result our debt crisis under control."

Dean Baker, a liberal economist says the plan "does nothing to address our broken health care system while virtually guaranteeing that most seniors will not be able to afford decent health care."
Writing in the Wall Street Journal Ryan wrote that President Obama's efforts have only made things worse.

He wrote "Major spending increases have failed to deliver promised jobs," he wrote. "The safety net for the poor is coming apart at the seams. Government health and retirement programs are growing at unsustainable rates. The new health-care law is a fiscal train wreck. And a complex, inefficient tax code is holding back American families and businesses."

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kurtjohnson | Apr 11, 2011, 12:15 AM EDT

Why not begin by cutting programs that beneficiaries didn't pay into and had funds stolen from for other projects? Cut fannie, freddie, FHA, TSA, Federal pensions, military and intelligence spending (stop policing the world), the department of education, farm and ethanol subsidies, and education subsidies in general (there is absolutely no correlation between spending and education outcomes anyway). While there at it, they ought to do something about the mortgage tax deduction so we the public stops subsidizing mcmansions.

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allentown | Apr 07, 2011, 07:12 PM EDT

A good start by Paul Ryan. It follows pretty much President Obama's Presential Commission's recommendation.

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McNamara31 | Apr 07, 2011, 11:17 AM EDT

Great posts... I hope Mr. Ryan and the rest of the GOP is listening: Hands of Medicare and Medicaid. Remember when Bush wanted to privatize the social security fund in the years before the crash. The GOP is always working to put more of our money into big business and Wall St. and when everything goes south they look to "the people" to suffer through the fixes. Remember how they treated the first responders making them practically beg for the treatment they truly deserved and now they want to break the uninons..Why? Plain and simple, to make it easier for big business once again.

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seanfer7 | Apr 07, 2011, 07:42 AM EDT

I am always amazed by people who have never held a job tell people how to conduct their own. If he was serious he would start with the 700 billion given to the wealthy and then the defense budget. This isn't a man but a boy looking to be a man

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seanomelbourne | Apr 06, 2011, 07:17 PM EDT

Ryan's plan give's government handouts to large corporations and their shareholders, no wonder the W.H.O. places the U.S. in 34th place on an international scales of health care standards France leads the field

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rugbyplayer | Apr 06, 2011, 05:19 PM EDT

I think Paul Ryan is biuking to be a GOP presidential nominee in 2012 with Eric Cantor of Virginia right behind him. Leave Medicare alone, Paul. Where were your voices Ryan, Cantor,Pawlenty,Romney,Boehner,Huckabee,Mc Donnell, Scott, Walker, Rove and the rest of the GOP when the Bush-Cheney dictatorship sunk trillions into two disastrous wars and left the USA bankrupt!

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jamthecat | Apr 06, 2011, 03:19 PM EDT

Anyone who supports this blithering idiot wants to destroy this country. Paul Ryan's "budget" makes up numbers, uses pie-in-the-sky figures to say everything will work out and threatens to completely destroy not only Medicare and Medicaid but Social Security, all for only the most ludicrous of promises for budget reform. For example, he assumes that by 2020 unemployment in the US will be down to 2.8%. The only time the US has ever had unemployment even near that low was during the Korean War, 60 years ago. And some economists say that if unemployment DOES get that low, then wages will explode and prices will explode and inflation will be the rule of the day. That this man WANTS this is patently absurd, so anyone who falls for his nonsense deserves what will happen to them when it finally falls apart. Problem is, they'll force the rest of us to suffer with them. PAY ATTENTION, PEOPLE! The GOP doesn't give a damn about anybody who has fewer than eight figures in their portfolio! They're using you to make the US into a one party state (with the diseased help of "Democrats" like Obama). Wake up and get real. NOBODY in Washington gives a tinker's damn about you.

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FastEddy | Apr 06, 2011, 02:08 PM EDT

... and about time, too. The medi"care" and state sponsored scam called medicaid has turned into a huge money maker drug peddlers, but not much in the way of individual savings or support for patients. Any US doctor in private practice will tell you that medicare / medicaid "support" costs every participating patient about double what they should be paying. The tax burden is oppressive, the paperwork burden is doubly expensive, the drain on senior's retirement resources is incredible. Good riddance to this rubbish. Without it more of you in the UK can come over here a take advantage of all North America has to offer "medical tourism". BTW: Brit waiting lines for standard outpatient surgery is now cued up to three weeks. How is that hope and change working for you in Ireland?

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LouGuyt | Apr 06, 2011, 01:59 PM EDT

In my opinion, Medicare and Medicaid ruined the medical profession. Now, it's all about money! Doctors think they deserve to be almost instant millionaires, simply because they went to school so long. Well, lots of others went to school just as long, or longer. If Ryan's plan is voted in, will it create another beaurocracy? The medical profession has so much money, plus the pharmaceutical compenies, that they could take care of all the destitute and never even feel it!!!

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floridafinn | Apr 06, 2011, 11:16 AM EDT

I am a senior who is not in the position of giving once in my paychecks for forty years and then on the back end again. The borrowing was from the Social Security "Trust" fund was agreed upon by Repubs and Dems alike---such great fiscal responsibility. Those with very high retirement income should pay more. Putting everything into the hands of the private sector is going to be worse. Of course they need a big infusion of funds for Wall Street.

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cillowen | Apr 06, 2011, 10:16 AM EDT

But the White House biographies offer an unusual history lesson. Some are examples of blatant boosterism and outdated scholarship. Others are oddly selective or politically incorrect. George W. Bush's entry, for example, makes no reference to Hurricane Katrina or the economic collapse of 2008, but does find room for the names of his dogs. Ronald Reagan's biography does not mention the Iran-Contra scandal, which made headlines during his second term. Gerald Ford's 1974 pardon of Richard Nixon is noted in a few words, with nothing about the fierce criticism it received. Vietnam is included on Lyndon Johnson's page but not his fateful decision to send ground troops. Thomas Jefferson is introduced as a "powerful advocate of liberty" who "inherited some 5,000 acres of land," but is not identified as an owner of slaves. Andrew Jackson's page says virtually nothing about his advocacy of slavery or harsh treatment of American Indians. The life of William Henry Harrison, a military commander who became the ninth president, is narrated as a valiant crusade against Indians

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irishmathair | Apr 06, 2011, 10:11 AM EDT

Thank God there are some sane people in Washington. I am so sick of listening to the liberals spread their doom and dispair over Rep. Paul Ryans budget plan. I am a senior citizen and I have no fear of "starving to death" or any of the other Nancy Pelosi nightmare threats if this is federal budget is passed. We will all have to make some sacrifices and I am willing to do so for the sake of my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren whose lives will otherwise be spent paying off the democrats way of doing things. Bravo to Representative Ryan and the Republicans for continuing to listen to the American people!!!!!!

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cillowen | Apr 06, 2011, 10:11 AM EDT

path to prosperity - for the usual without a care bagger types. after all who else are Repugs, put there for. heartless b......

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MrSinatra | Apr 06, 2011, 01:39 AM EDT

liberals are such dopes. there isn't enough money in THE WORLD for every sob story and weepy booboo. Ryan finally brings FISCAL SANITY to DC, and good for him!

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kurtjohnson | Apr 05, 2011, 10:49 PM EDT

They've raided Medicare on numerous occasions and should leave it alone. Neither party will address the real driving force behind health costs - insurance oligopolies and drug costs (caused by ridiculously long patents and a prohibition against buying drugs from other countries. This shows that Washington will always be ruled by lobbyist. Their should also be massive cuts in the military, Fannie/Freddie and education ("education" spending sounds good but the amount spent has not demonstrable impact on qualitative output).

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