Nice
try, Republicans, running a political protection racket to push your
Medicare scheme. Scrubbed of the sweet talk about saving Medicare, your
offer boiled down to this: You older folks support us, and we won't
touch a hair on your government health-insurance plan. Only those 55
and under get whacked. Somehow this appeal to greedy geezer-ism
didn't go over so well. Perhaps it was too blatant. Perhaps older
people are not greedy -- they worry about the coming generations. And
perhaps these voters looked a couple of moves ahead on the chessboard
and figured that a radical shrinkage in health care security for
today's younger workers would imperil the cushy benefits they enjoy.
After all, with each passing year, there will be more voters born after
the 1957 cutoff and fewer born before. Anyway, the reception to the
plan was less than friendly. The angry ones who beat up on Democrats
during last year's town hall meetings seemed to do a U-turn and waved
their fists at Republicans. In response, GOP leaders wisely backed away
from their deficit plan, which in essence, would balance budgets by
going after Medicare with an ax. To recap: The proposal would end
government responsibility for paying the medical bills of the elderly
and disabled. Instead, Medicare recipients would be handed vouchers
with which to buy coverage from private insurers. And here's the big
squeeze: The size of the vouchers wouldn't nearly keep up with
projected hikes in health care costs. Of course, Medicare spending
cannot continue spiraling upward at the current rate, and waste and
fraud do plague the program. Republicans were no doubt thinking that in
addition to capping the taxpayer's obligation to Medicare, a voucher
system would wring out its famous inefficiencies as insurers sought to
maximize profits. This was another of their
government-can't-do-anything-right,
let-the-private-sector-straighten-things-out formulations. However,
the history of for-profit players in Medicare does not inspire such
confidence. The private Medicare Advantage plans cost taxpayers 12
percent more per head than the traditional program would have. And the
government-run Department of Veterans Affairs pays 40 percent less for
prescription drugs than do the private insurers in the Medicare drug
benefit. We must thank Republicans for showing us how to balance
budgets and reduce government's role in health care without raising
taxes: Have corporate interests make the health care decisions and
arbitrarily cut how much you give them to do so. And we admire the
party's House leaders for courage in passing this fiscally honest and
politically risky proposal with only four of their members voting
against it. But with the reviews for their vision a two-thumbs-down,
Republicans should try another approach. For starters, they can stop
maligning the health care reform law, which does include mechanisms to
curtail Medicare spending (while preserving the government's role as
guarantor of promised benefits). As one example, the law promotes
Accountable Care Organizations -- networks of doctors and hospitals
that care for patients and share in any savings. As another, it funds
comparative effectiveness research, which studies various treatments
for the same condition and identifies those that do the job as well for
less money. Finally, Republicans should stop ignoring the revenue
side of budgeting. Tax collections as a percentage of the gross
domestic product are the lowest they've been in decades. The things
Americans want must be paid for, and they want Medicare. Accusing
political opponents of trying to scare old people has not succeeded.
Americans see the Republican plan for the attack on Medicare that it
is. And pitting one generation against another is not an attractive
strategy. In any case, it appears not to have worked this time.
Republicans, let's try again.
To
find out more about Froma Harrop, and read features by other Creators
Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web
page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2011 THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL CO. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
