New District Analysis Shows Impact of Ryan Medicare Plan

New District Analysis Shows Impact of Ryan Medicare Plan
Tens of thousands in 12th District would see higher costs, reduced benefits

WASHINGTON – A new district-by-district analysis of the Ryan Medicare plan by the House Energy and Commerce Committee lays out in stark detail how Michiganders would be negatively affected by the proposal, which would turn Medicare into a voucher program and lead to higher out-of-pocket health care costs. The analysis also highlighted the degree to which the Ryan budget would shred Medicaid, Food Stamps and other vital programs. It follows a Kaiser Family Foundation report this week that illustrated how the proposal would have raised costs for nearly two-thirds of seniors had it been in effect in 2010, illustrating that no one – not even current seniors – are held harmless by the Ryan Medicare plan.

“Nearly a fifth of Michiganders rely on Medicare for their health care and I will fight at every turn the Republican effort to turn it into a voucher program,” said U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, D-MI. “The ill effects of the plan are plain to see: higher costs for health care and, ultimately, a death spiral for traditional Medicare.”

A full analysis is available here. Here’s what the Ryan budget would do to people in Michigan’s 12th Congressional District:

• Increase prescription drug costs for 6,900 Medicare beneficiaries in the district who enter the Part D donut hole, forcing them to pay an extra $63 million for drugs over the next decade.
• Eliminate new preventive care benefits for 113,000 Medicare beneficiaries in the district.
• Force 113,000 Medicare beneficiaries in the district who are currently enrolled in traditional Medicare to pay thousands of dollars more in premiums to remain in traditional Medicare after Medicare becomes a voucher program.
• Reduce coverage for 14,700 low income Medicare beneficiaries who rely on Medicaid to supplement their Medicare coverage, potentially denying them over $510 million in health benefits.
• Jeopardize nursing home care for 1,900 district residents whose expenses are paid by Medicaid.
• Raise food costs for 13,500 district households with seniors who rely on food stamps by as much as $1,100 per year or eliminate food assistance for many of these households entirely.
• Threaten affordable housing programs that provide rental support for 3,200 district seniors.
• Place 99,000 district seniors at increased risk of fraud, scams, and elder abuse by cutting as much as $6 billion in funding for federal consumer protection and law enforcement.