Analysis: GOP gets its turn on Medicare hot seat

share: diggfacebooktwitter Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., says his approach would "save" Medicare by keeping the financially troubled program affordable for federal taxpayers. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says the typical beneficiary would be expected to pay more than two-thirds of his or her medical costs by the year 2030. [...] Democrats running against them in 2012 won't let voters forget the budget, just as Republicans hammered Democrats last year over Medicare cuts in Obama's health care law. "If everybody who bought health care was paying more when they get a more expensive plan, that would create a lot more pressure to bring costs down," said Mark McClellan, who ran Medicare for President George W. Bush. The principle behind Ryan's plan is that seniors making their own decisions about health insurance can do a better job of keeping costs in check than Washington bureaucrats playing whack-a-mole with rising prices. The biggest change for this group would be the revival of the "doughnut hole" gap in Medicare prescription coverage that Obama's health care law eliminated. [...] starting in 2022, new retirees would get a fixed amount of money to buy private insurance from a choice of plans regulated by the government. Without some kind of effort to control private health care costs, the government contribution toward premiums wouldn't go very far. Despite the political risks Republicans take with their Medicare remake, they won't get much in savings over the 10-year estimating window that Congress applies to the budget.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin taking heat for supporting 'Obamacare' measure

By Wayne Green - Tulsa World

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin is taking criticism -- from fellow Republicans -- because of her support for a proposal that some say is the first step to implementing "Obamacare" in Oklahoma.

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