1. The Romney/Ryan plan will change Medicare to a Voucher Program -- to occur in 2016.
2. The Romney/Ryan plan will significantly REDUCE Medicaid and leave it to the States to provide the significantly Reduced Coverage -- to occur IMMEDIATELY.
It is critical for the American Public to understand what this means. Romney has refused to state these positions publicly. Now, Ryan has OUTED their Agenda.
Most Americans DO NOT want to think about what will happen when they become Senior Citizens. I spoke to two young Romney voters this week. My (barbie type niece) said she was voting for Romney because he was "cuter" than Obama. My 30ish Yuppie friend said he was voting for Romney because he said he believes the country should take a new direction and he believes in the "tax cuts for the rich - trickle down" theory (Fox News watcher) -- as if that has ever worked. Of course he cited Reagan, but I had to remind him that Romney RAISED TAXES 4 Times! Barbie said, "I'm glad that Romney's discontinuing Medicare and SS cause I'm tired of paying my money for lazy people."
Social Security: Ryan's Plan calls for privatizing Social Security. I will blog about this in a future post.
Medicare: Voucher Program. I will blog about this in a future post.
Medicaid: Ryan said Romney's plan is to CUT MEDICAID ON DAY ONE! On today's post, I'm going to talk about Medicaid.
As many of my long time readers know, after I retired from my Process Engineering job at a large Communications company in 2009, I became a Consultant working for Medicare Enrollment and Retiree Investment Corporations. As a consultant, I have learned so much about the retiree experience. I purposely sought out these jobs because, now that I am in my 60's, I wanted to learn more about the Senior Citizen experience before I enter into it.
As a Medicare Consultant, I learned that over 50% of our Seniors rely solely on Social Security and Medicare for their existence. They have no other source of income. I learned that a large number of Medicare recipients are Dual Eligible - meaning they recieve both Medicare and Medicaid. Many of them are in Nursing Homes.
Not long ago, I spoke with a woman whose Aunt was in a Nursing Home. Her aunt had been a teacher her entire life and enjoyed being self reliant. Throughout her career, her aunt was healthy, independent and saved much of her income, planning for retirement. She had a considerable nest egg when she retired at 65. She had accumulated over $750,000. In her early retirement she traveled around the country and across the world. However in her late sixties, she became ill. At first she was ok. She had medicare to take care of most of her medical expenses. However, in her seventies, her health took a turn for the worse. She needed daily care. At first, a nurse came to her home a few days a week. Then she needed daily help. Then finally, she was unable to take care of herself at all and it was necessary for her to be placed in a care facility -- a Nursing Home.
Her niece helped her find a nicer facility but it was very expensive. Soon, her aunt depleted her entire retirement savings and the monies from the sale of her home. Her niece said to me, "It only took a little over a year. You would be surprised at how quickly the money runs out. The nursing home cost was $10,000 a month. This did not include the Medical or Prescription Drug costs, this was only the Nursing Home costs."
Statistics tell us the average daily cost of a private room in a nursing home in the United States is $120,000 a year.
Once her aunt's savings were depleted, her niece helped her apply for Medicaid to help pay for her Nursing home costs. Her Aunt would not have been happy with the turn of events. She spent her life being so proud of her ability to save and being independent. This was only SEVEN YEARS since she had retired thinking she had plenty of savings to take care of herself until she died.
Her niece told me it was difficult applying for aid from the government. She had to prove that her Aunt had depleted her savings, lost her home and had no other sources of income. Her aunt would have been humiliated by the extent of what her niece had to do -- providing so much documentation, filling out so many forms, make call after call, making sure all requirements were met, all so her aunt could receive Medicaid. "I had to jump through hoops for her just so she could receive the aid she so direly needs. She would have hated it. Like so many others, she thought Medicaid was a handout. But she paid her taxes and worked all of her life. If anyone deserves this, my Aunt certainly did. She was such a good person. She helped me, her students and so many other people all of her life."
Her niece told me one other thing. "I know that I did all that I could to find a nice place for my aunt, but it is really like so many others. My aunt needs the daily care, but what is so mind boggling to me is how much the Nursing Home costs. It costs $10,000 a month and the place has only One Nurse. It's really the minimum wage Care Workers that are providing my aunt all the support she needs."
The bottom line is: Ryan ADMITTED on the stage on Thursday that a Romney/Ryan ticket will CHANGE Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as we know them -- and Medicaid ON DAY ONE! Most Americans DON'T UNDERSTAND THE IMPLICATIONS!!! Ryan Romney PLAN TO THROW GRANNY OFF A CLIFF!
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