JONATHAN COHN OCTOBER 27, 2010
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Opposition to health care reform isn't uniform across the generations. It's heavily concentrated among senior citizens. And while that partly reflects the fact that seniors, on the whole, are least supportive of President Obama, it also reflects the specifics of the Affordable Care Act. The law will take about $500 billion out of Medicare over the next ten years. As Marilyn Werber Serafini notes at Kaiser Health News, Republicans have made good political use of that figure this election season:
Until this spring, lifelong Democrat Carolyn Land never had a second thought about voting for Rep. Allen Boyd, a Democrat who has represented her area since 1997.
But the day after Boyd cast his vote on March 21 for the new health care overhaul law, Land, 65, got out of her La-Z-Boy, switched her registration to Republican and began stumping for Boyd's Republican challenger, Steve Southerland. The law "cut $500 billion from Medicare," she complained. "Right now, I can see a doctor when I need to, but I'm afraid I won't if that happens. I foresee a long wait."
The real story of how the Affordable Care Act will affect Medicare is a lot more complicated, as Serafini quickly explains. The Act actually strengthens Medicare's guaranteed benefits, by making preventative care free and covering a greater share of seniors' prescription drugs. The reductions come primarily from reduced payments to providers and lower subsidies to private insurers that serve Medicare beneficiaries. In other words, they take money from the health care industry--not Medicare beneficiaries.
Critics argue that the difference is semantic. They say these reductions will mean less access to care--if not through reduced benefits, then though longer waits as doctors become less likely to see Medicare patients. Reform proponents suggest that's unlikely, because, among other things, reform will spend Medicare money more efficiently, getting more health care bang for the same Medicare buck. (Keep in mind spending on the program would still increase--it just wouldn't increase as quickly as before.)
Who's right? I side with the proponents, as you might guess. But even to the extent that seniors hold different views, it's surprising they believe Republicans will keep Medicare sacrosanct. After all, this is the party that opposes government-run insurance (which Medicare is) and has tried repeatedly to privatize the program. Young Guns, the new book by three House Republican leaders, calls for turning Medicare into a voucher program that would dramatically reduce the program's guaranteed benefits--an idea that, as Serafini points out in a separate story, seniors strongly oppose.
Then again, the Republican proposal, taken from Representative Paul Ryan's "Roadmap," would leave Medicare in place for everybody who retires before 2020. Privatization, and the ensuing decline in benefits, would affect only younger workers. Maybe the sentiments among seniors make sense after all.
5 comments
"Then again, the Republican proposal, taken from Representative Paul Ryan's "Roadmap," would leave Medicare in place for everybody who retires before 2020. Privatization, and the ensuing decline in benefits, would affect only younger workers. Maybe the sentiments among seniors make sense after all." Classic. "Vote for me now, and I'll make sure only people younger than you are screwed."
- Fishpeddler
October 27, 2010 at 12:56pm
Every health care reform advocate has solaced themselves with the belief that the public would turn on Republicans once they found out that death panels, $500 million in Medicare cuts and all other horribles associated with the ACA never come to pass. It seems that the elderly are immune to this sort of logic for no other reason then the fact that large numbers of them will be dying off or becoming senile before that proposition could be definitively disproven.
- wildboy
October 27, 2010 at 1:22pm
When I visit my Mom, who is 70 and loves Obama, I'm amazed at how selfish, stupid and ignorant most of her friends are about the politics. For people with so much time on their hands, they really are so misinformed it is shocking. But it seems like when you cross into seniordom, something clicks in your brain and you are afraid of everything. The Republicans have masterfully played this seemingly genetic trait to hilt and it is working, if my admittedly unscientific sampling seems to demonstrate.
- SJ_LEX_LEO@YAHOO.COM
October 27, 2010 at 1:48pm
Jamiller34's experiences are similar to mine. Both of my parents (in the mid 70s) think highly of Obama and were appalled at how the GOP twisted the entire HCR debate. My dad in particular has been downright disturbed at long-time friends that have gone off the deep-end opposing any kind health care reform and the racist comments from them. He's developed an outright hatred of the GOP, saying they're out to destroy Obama out of spite. My dad had an argument with an acquaintance last summer about HCR. This fellow was on SS, Medicare and disability. This guy was 200% against any HCR, was spouting the death panel bit, the works. My dad tried to reason with him, asking why was it okay for him to get gov't subsidized healthcare but a 20 year old making minimum wage didn't deserve the same. After some more argument my dad gave up in disgust, telling the guy "You're stupid. I thought you were stupid all of these years but now I know you're stupid." I wish there were more seniors like my parents. They're more concerned about my children than themselves, saying their generation has become spitefully selfish. If it were up to my father, who's a now-retired business owner (restaurants, for over 40 years), he'd abolish the entire private insurance system and make it all single payer.
- tnmats
October 27, 2010 at 3:57pm
Seniors are not selfish, they are not hypocrits, they are not stupid, but they are afraid of change. Then again, so am I (though I'm not quite a senior). At least I think that's what seniors tell me, but I can't remember.
- rayward
October 27, 2010 at 5:20pm