By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    staying healthy after 40
    3 Essential Things to Do to Stay Healthy After 40
    February 26, 2023
    medical devices
    What Are the Different Categories of Medical Supplies?
    June 8, 2023
    What is Pneumonia? Causes, Treatment, and Care
    What is Pneumonia? Causes, Treatment, and Care
    September 19, 2023
    Latest News
    7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
    August 20, 2025
    Hospital Pest Control and the Fight Against Superbugs
    August 20, 2025
    Hygiene Beyond The Clinic: Attention To Overlooked Non-Clinical Spaces
    August 13, 2025
    5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
    August 3, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    Health Tablets in the Waiting Room Revolutionizing Telemedicine
    March 23, 2012
    Partnerships in Health: Applying Metrics to Target Interventions & Improve Health
    September 30, 2011
    Patient Responsibility – What to do if they Won’t Take Any?
    April 12, 2012
    Latest News
    How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
    August 22, 2025
    How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
    August 22, 2025
    How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
    August 22, 2025
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Ryan’s Plan
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Policy & Law > Health Reform > Ryan’s Plan
Health Reform

Ryan’s Plan

JohnCGoodman
JohnCGoodman
Share
6 Min Read
SHARE

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has proposed a Medicare reform plan that is being contrasted with the approach adopted by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), what some people call ObamaCare. Even though Republicans are backing away from the plan, it is the centerpiece of the House Republican budget. It’s also attracting a lot of criticism from the Obama administration and from left-of-center commentators.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has proposed a Medicare reform plan that is being contrasted with the approach adopted by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), what some people call ObamaCare. Even though Republicans are backing away from the plan, it is the centerpiece of the House Republican budget. It’s also attracting a lot of criticism from the Obama administration and from left-of-center commentators. For example, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says it will cause seniors to “die sooner.”

Both ObamaCare and Paul Ryan propose very large cuts in Medicare spending — cuts that will continue indefinitely into the future. As I said in a previous post, neither plan has a serious proposal to slow the rate of growth of health care spending overall. So under both plans, the amount that the federal government will spend on care for the elderly and the disabled will fall further and further behind what everybody else is spending. (See the spending charts here.)

 

More Read

Bruce Bethancourt on Building the Medical Group of Tomorrow [TRANSCRIPT]
IPAB: Fix It, Don’t Repeal It
Insurance Companies Get Reprieve on Certain Administrative Rules, Consumer Groups Worry
ICD-10 Delay 1 Year to 2014, HHS Announces
Debt Ceiling Negotiations on Health Care are Mere Cost Shifting

Someday We’ll Be Together

 

 

Looking indefinitely into the future, the approach of ObamaCare is to continue to squeeze the providers. Fees paid to doctors and hospitals would grow at roughly half the rate of growth of fees paid by BlueCross and everyone else. Ironically, for the next decade Ryan’s approach pretty well follows the ObamaCare path. But from that point on, it diverges and allows doctor and hospital fees to be determined in the marketplace. Ryan would limit instead the amount Medicare pays to private insurers, who would operate much like Medicare Advantage plans operate today.

Of the two approaches, Ryan’s is definitely better — once you get past the first ten years. Obama’s approach relies completely on something that has already been tried and failed: price controls. Ryan (at least eventually) would allow market forces to have greater sway. Under Ryan’s approach, doctors and hospitals would be free to offer different bundles of services that meet needs that are now going unmet. For example, they could offer primary care combined with telephone and email consultations, same day appointments, entrées to specialists, etc, much as “concierge” doctors are offering today. Under the Obama approach, however, everyone would be stuck with the basic dysfunctional system we currently have — with Washington dictating what services Medicare will pay for and how much.

Even so, there will be fewer federal dollars available for senior medical care, relative to trend, under both approaches. One of two things can happen. Either seniors will supplement the reduced federal payment by paying more out of their own pockets, or providers will have to provide lower-cost care. This latter possibility will certainly mean fewer amenities (e.g., no private rooms, fewer inpatient menu choices, etc.) and will also probably mean a lower quality of care.

To prevent this unpleasant outcome, both plans need three things neither plan has. First, they need a way for young people to save, tax free, during their working years so they have funds set aside to supplement the federal government’s increasingly smaller contribution. Second, both plans need to start freeing the Medicare system immediately — encouraging doctors and hospitals to repackage and reprice their services so that care can be provided more efficiently. Finally, both need to do something Capitol Hill has resolutely resisted year after year: pass the kind of reforms that will reduce health care spending overall.

On the sociology of reform, what can I say? Columns by Alan Blinder, Paul Krugman, Ezra Klein, Uwe Reinhardt and others excoriate Ryan and his colleagues because the proposed Medicare “premium-support credits” would be indexed to consumer inflation, not health costs. Yet the ObamaCare Medicare plan also has spending growing at a rate well below overall health care costs and these same columnists have uttered not a peep of protest about that in the year since its passage. On the other side are columnists who can offer only praise for Ryan.

It’s hard to escape the conclusion that quite a few op-ed writers and bloggers are more concerned with doing the bidding of the two parties rather than finding workable solutions to difficult problems. Gail Wilensky and Timothy Jost are two of the very few commentators with a balanced approach.

Health reform ideas are good or bad in their own right. They do not become more or less desirable because of the people or political parties who support or oppose them.

   

TAGGED:health care reformPaul Ryan
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

engineer fitting prosthetic arm
How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
Health care
August 20, 2025
a woman explaining the document
How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
Public Health
August 20, 2025
physiotherapist at work
How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
Health care
August 20, 2025
Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs
7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
Health News
August 20, 2025

You Might also Like

Image
Health ReformNewsPolicy & LawWellness

Physician Burnout and the Changing Approach to Practice

February 14, 2013

What Can We Learn From European Hospice Care and Life Insurance Policies?

February 8, 2016
smoker health premiums
Health ReformPolicy & LawPublic Health

Giving Smokers a Pass on Health Premiums

July 19, 2013
Image
BusinessFinanceHealth ReformPolicy & Law

Why Only Business Can Save America From Health Care

March 25, 2013
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?