Republican Budget Roadmap: Paul Ryan's Health Reform

Wisconsin's US Representative, Paul Ryan, created a Republican Budget Plan which he refers to as a road map. This article presents my opinion about Paul Ryan's Health Reform Plan that is part of his Budget plan. My reference is

http://www.roadmap.republicans.budget.house.gov/plan/#Appendix1

Judging by what I'm reading on the web, I doubt that many Republicans actually took the time to read the English summary of Paul Ryan's Budget Plan. People apparently are for the plan simply because it was created by a Republican.

Either they don't understand the health reform proposed by Ryan or they assume his plan is not liberalism nor socialism. Any type of public assistance by the Federal government can be considered socialism.

What people fail to realize or refuse to realize is that Obamacare contains all of the advantages in Paul Ryan's plan and more.

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First I would like to give Paul Ryan credit for his effort in creating his version of health reform which probably is actually a modified version of the Republican health reform plan that never made it out of committee. I look forward to the Congressional Budget Office's cost analysis of the modified version of Ryan's plan that comes out of the Congressional committees and also an analysis by experts of the effectiveness of his plan.

I noted that Paul Ryan did not include a method of paying for the plan. His decentralized plan places responsibility for the administration of the plan on the states and will force the individual states to raise funds for the plan. For example, the plan provides for a state block grant for long term care which I assume means nursing home care. However, both the states and the Federal government are attempting to eliminate large deficits. This means that these grants will be inadequate.

Ryan's plan does not force insurances to provide all types of coverage but leaves that option up to the insured. Ryan's plan allows people access to all insurance firms regardless of which state the insurance firm is in.

I question the effects of Ryan's health reform plan. I don't think it will actually lower the overall cost of health care. My reason is that it allows too many people to drop out of the system thereby becoming uninsured. These uninsured people will inevitably end up in the hospital emergency rooms for their urgent health needs. The hospitals will make up for their losses by charging the insured more for the emergency room visits. This will raise insurance premiums.

The debit card amounts in the Medicaid section of Ryan's plan will help with health care payments but will still render health insurance coverage unaffordable for those in poverty or near the poverty line. The tax credits of $2300 for individuals and $5700 for joint filers are an inadequate step in the right direction for health reform because it only applies to those who could afford health insurance and does not include those on Medicare who are in desperate need this tax credit .

Ryan's medicare reform abandons the poor and the elderly by only applying medicare benefits to those who could afford a private health insurance plan.

Ryan's Medicaid reform abandons the family that can't afford health insurance. This will result in increased health insurance costs because less people will have health insurance. Obamacare yields more people with health insurance hence helping to reduce health insurance costs.

Obama's plan helps those who can't afford health insurance by providing subsidies to help pay for private health insurance. Ryan's plan does the same.

Obama's plan allows people to hold on to their health insurance while switching jobs. Ryan's plan does the same.

Ryan claims that his plan will result in improved health care quality but nothing in Ryan's plan provides for better health care quality. Just like Obamacare.

Ryan's plan only provides financial breaks via tax credits for businesses that provide health insurance and for individuals with private health insurance. This individual control of health care dollars is insignificant when considering the cost of hospital operations.

Competition will not persuade insurance companies to hold on to clients with major expensive health problems. It's a nice statement but nothing is provided in Ryan's plan to support it. The person who contracts terminal cancer will still find his/her insurance coverage terminated.

The state based exchange is just as expensive as the federal exchange in Obamacare when you total up the costs of all state based exchanges. As a matter of fact, it is more expensive because of redundancy.

High risk pools for people with pre-existing conditions is suppose to be a good feature of Ryan's plan? High risk pools will be unaffordable for most families and singles.

Ryan did not state that guaranteed access to health insurance coverage is very different from affordable health insurance coverage.

The expanded access to health insurance enrollment does not nullify the disadvantages of any health care plan.

The cost of health insurance will increase under Ryan's plan causing more people to go without health insurance.

Tort reform is a welcome part of Ryan's plan.

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In summary, Ryan's plan is an inadequate revised edition of Obamacare. It will not reduce health care costs. Ryan's plan is indeed socialism as is any form of government control or government assistance.