If you're looking for a description of the Ryan/Rivlin Medicare reforms that have gained so many admirers on the right, Matt Yglesias has a good write-up of the idea. But I'd add another way of explaining the proposal: The Ryan-Rivlin plan basically turns Medicare into Obamacare. And in that context, Republicans love the idea behind ObamaCare and think it'll save lots of money.
Under the Ryan-Rivlin plan, the current Medicare program is completely dissolved and replaced by a new Medicare program that "would provide a payment – based on what the average annual per-capita expenditure is in 2021 – to purchase health insurance." You'd get the health insurance from a "Medicare Exchange", and "health plans which choose to participate in the Medicare Exchange must agree to offer insurance to all Medicare beneficiaries, thereby preventing cherry picking and ensuring that Medicare’s sickest and highest cost beneficiaries receive coverage."
Sound familiar?
As Matt says, this doesn't save money. In theory, it actually costs money, as private insurance is more expensive for Medicare -- and that's true both in the private market, and in the quasi-private Medicare Advantage market. What saves money is capping the amount paid to seniors, so they either have to pay more for their care or get less.
But that's not how it's being explained. Matt calls the privatization strategy here "an ideological tic" and says it's unrelated to the cost control, but I'd say it's more of a sleight of hand that's necessary for the cost control. The question seniors will have about this plan is "won't it mean lower benefits?" The privatization idea, by virtue of being a disruptive reform, allows you to say, "no, competition in the private market will make Medicare so much more efficient that it'll be able to deliver more for less!" Or, as Rivlin's original plan (pdf) says, "The expectation is that increased competition among plans fostered by the Medicare Exchange...will keep costs from rising."
I don't know that accusations of hypocrisy are really worth making in American politics, but consider the way this policy and its rationale interacts with the case against ObamaCare. Right now, Medicare is much cheaper than private insurance. If you think that moving Medicare to a model of private insurance sold on exchanges will make it even cheaper, what you're saying is that an ObamaCare model will not only be cheaper than the current private-insurance system, but cheaper than the even-cheaper Medicare system.
If you believe this logic, the Affordable Care Act is a great bill that will save much more money than CBO currently assumes. And yet this is the reform package that's gaining adherents among the group of people who want to repeal the Affordable Care Act and think it a monstrous and unconstitutional piece of legislation with no redeeming features worth mentioning.
Photo credit: Melina Mara/The Washington Post.
Bank Of America Lawsuits Highlight Broken, Ineffective Mortgage Modification Programs
The Attorneys General of Nevada and Arizona last week slapped Bank of America with lawsuits alleging widespread fraud occurrs in the bank’s mortgage modification programs. BofA, the nation’s biggest bank, has consistently lagged behind the other big mortgage servicers in successfully modifying mortgages for troubled borrowers. Andrew Jakabovics and I also caught the bank violating the contract it signed with Treasury to participate in the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) by siphoning borrowers into its own private modification program without determining their HAMP eligibility.
But these lawsuits allege an even bigger mess, with BofA accused of giving deceptive and inaccurate reasons for rejecting modifications, and stringing borrowers along in the modification process for months, allowing them to continue making futile mortgage payments before ultimately foreclosing on them:
As a result of Bank of America’s misrepresentations, many Arizona consumers stopped making mortgage payments in a perilous attempt to qualify for help. Others waited for months for — or never received — answers on their modification requests, all while fearing that they would lose their homes; many actually lost their homes. Some consumers were misled to continue making payments in the belief that they would be able to obtain modifications and keep their homes.
Had they known they would lose their homes despite making payments, some consumers might have sough short sales or other foreclosure alternatives or simply allowed their homes to be foreclosed, saving the money from the additional payments for other necessary expenses. Other consumers lose willing buyers who could have mitigated their own (and Bank of America’s) financial losses by stepping in to purchase their homes.
Nevada’s attorney general told a very similar tale, accusing BofA of “misleading consumers with false assurances that their homes would not be foreclosed while their requests for modifications were pending, but sending foreclosure notices, scheduling auction dates, and even selling consumers’ homes while they waited for decisions.” The Upshot describes the “Boschian hell” that one Arizona family went through before having its home sold out from under it while waiting to see if it qualified for a modification.
Unfortunately, this story is all too common for homeowners seeking modifications. As Shahien Nasiripour noted today, 29,000 borrowers participating in HAMP have been stuck in the “trial modification” phase of the program for a year or more, unsure of whether they will ultimately keep their home, when that phase is only supposed to last three months. If those families are foreclosed upon in the end, they will have wasted months and months of payments that could have been used for something else.
HAMP, at this point, badly needs to fixed, and other foreclosure prevention efforts need to be undertaken. If they aren’t, the sorts of horror stories outlined above won’t stop, and the economy will continue to be weighed down by preventable foreclosures.
bench craft company scam
Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite
If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...
Michelle Ryan and a Brief History of the Foot Fetish - AOL <b>News</b>
Foot fetish videos believed to feature Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan made the rounds on the Internet on Wednesday, and Surge Desk dug up some interesting facts on what Sigmund Freud termed.
Bad <b>news</b> from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at <b>...</b>
Bad news from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at Gitmo.
bench craft company scam
Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite
If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...
Michelle Ryan and a Brief History of the Foot Fetish - AOL <b>News</b>
Foot fetish videos believed to feature Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan made the rounds on the Internet on Wednesday, and Surge Desk dug up some interesting facts on what Sigmund Freud termed.
Bad <b>news</b> from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at <b>...</b>
Bad news from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at Gitmo.
bench craft company scam
Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite
If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...
Michelle Ryan and a Brief History of the Foot Fetish - AOL <b>News</b>
Foot fetish videos believed to feature Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan made the rounds on the Internet on Wednesday, and Surge Desk dug up some interesting facts on what Sigmund Freud termed.
Bad <b>news</b> from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at <b>...</b>
Bad news from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at Gitmo.
bench craft company scam
Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite
If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...
Michelle Ryan and a Brief History of the Foot Fetish - AOL <b>News</b>
Foot fetish videos believed to feature Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan made the rounds on the Internet on Wednesday, and Surge Desk dug up some interesting facts on what Sigmund Freud termed.
Bad <b>news</b> from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at <b>...</b>
Bad news from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at Gitmo.
bench craft company scam
Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite
If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...
Michelle Ryan and a Brief History of the Foot Fetish - AOL <b>News</b>
Foot fetish videos believed to feature Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan made the rounds on the Internet on Wednesday, and Surge Desk dug up some interesting facts on what Sigmund Freud termed.
Bad <b>news</b> from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at <b>...</b>
Bad news from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at Gitmo.
bench craft company scam
Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite
If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...
Michelle Ryan and a Brief History of the Foot Fetish - AOL <b>News</b>
Foot fetish videos believed to feature Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan made the rounds on the Internet on Wednesday, and Surge Desk dug up some interesting facts on what Sigmund Freud termed.
Bad <b>news</b> from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at <b>...</b>
Bad news from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at Gitmo.
bench craft company scam
Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite
If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...
Michelle Ryan and a Brief History of the Foot Fetish - AOL <b>News</b>
Foot fetish videos believed to feature Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan made the rounds on the Internet on Wednesday, and Surge Desk dug up some interesting facts on what Sigmund Freud termed.
Bad <b>news</b> from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at <b>...</b>
Bad news from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at Gitmo.
bench craft company scam
Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite
If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...
Michelle Ryan and a Brief History of the Foot Fetish - AOL <b>News</b>
Foot fetish videos believed to feature Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan made the rounds on the Internet on Wednesday, and Surge Desk dug up some interesting facts on what Sigmund Freud termed.
Bad <b>news</b> from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at <b>...</b>
Bad news from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at Gitmo.
bench craft company scam
Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite
If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...
Michelle Ryan and a Brief History of the Foot Fetish - AOL <b>News</b>
Foot fetish videos believed to feature Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan made the rounds on the Internet on Wednesday, and Surge Desk dug up some interesting facts on what Sigmund Freud termed.
Bad <b>news</b> from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at <b>...</b>
Bad news from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at Gitmo.
bench craft company scam
Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite
If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...
Michelle Ryan and a Brief History of the Foot Fetish - AOL <b>News</b>
Foot fetish videos believed to feature Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan made the rounds on the Internet on Wednesday, and Surge Desk dug up some interesting facts on what Sigmund Freud termed.
Bad <b>news</b> from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at <b>...</b>
Bad news from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at Gitmo.
bench craft company scam
Ben Sherwood - ABC <b>News</b> | Attack Video | Mediaite
If a video posted to Vimeo is to be believed, there are some insiders at ABC News who don't really care very much for newly-named boss Ben Sherwood, described in the video as the Draco Malfoy of Broadcast News. The video--essentially a ...
Michelle Ryan and a Brief History of the Foot Fetish - AOL <b>News</b>
Foot fetish videos believed to feature Michelle Ryan, the wife of New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan made the rounds on the Internet on Wednesday, and Surge Desk dug up some interesting facts on what Sigmund Freud termed.
Bad <b>news</b> from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at <b>...</b>
Bad news from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at Gitmo.
bench craft company scam
No comments:
Post a Comment