Reaction to GOP budget

First of all, as the economist I quoted previously has said, Ryan's idea is not new. It is called privatizing Medicare, and has been tried before. My first problem with this idea of changing Medicare is this. People who now benefit will still get "old' Medicare, meaning those my mothers age and older would still receive medical treatment. For everyone else Medicare would change from a provider of health care to nothing more than a rebate program. People would have to find their own insurance carrier when they retire, and the federal government would give them a rebate on care the individual finds and pays for. Now keep in mind that the GOP want a full repeal of the new health care law which does away with pre existing conditions. So this private insurance that you have to find at retirement, if the GOP has their way, could reject you based on your health. Since that hasn't happened yet lets ignore that for now. Okay so you are ready to retire and you have to find a provider for yourself. That provider could deny any care that you might need because they are a private insurance company. The next problem is finding a doctor. See Medicare is excepted everywhere, this would not be the case with a private insurance. So it puts a lot more stress on the individual to find insurance that they can afford, and that will be excepted by their doctor. Ryan says that this will save money. Well of course it will, not paying for things saves money. This is not a fix to a broken program, this is breaking a program that has a few flaws. With the new health care law costs to individuals and states decreases over time. The problem with Ryan is that he is short sighted. If I can refer to an analogy I made before, if you don't pay your rent you save money. The problem is you end up homeless. By not supporting Medicare more people will end up without insurance. Ryan is not a genius, he's a shortsighted entitled child.

Now on to giving states block grants for Medicaid. This sounds like a reasonable idea right. Why not let states customize Medicaid, they know what their people need right? Well yes and no. States have already cut essential health care to disabled and low income adults. The only thing that keeps them from doing the same to children is Federal mandate. By giving Medicaid as a block grant that Federal mandate would be void. So states could, and no doubt would, cut services to children. Why would they do such an awful thing you ask. Because many people in Republican led states are under the impression that nearly all Medicaid dollars go to illegal immigrants. So to satisfy their voters Republicans will cut dollars to "criminals". I could go on, but perhaps this post is long enough.