CA-52: Brian Bilbray, Fighting for California Jobs

Brian Bilbray has a record of supporting the interests of small businesses, cutting watseful spending, and removing barriers to growth. He's a vote for California jobs. Learn more at www.FriendsoftheUSChamber.com.

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[fosterliberty]

The vouchers would only be useable on a Medicare exchange. Ryan has already made clear that all plans would have to meet Medicare standards.

[feriwarlock]

Medicare Advantage is NOT an add on and no spin or misunderstanding on your part will make it so. Medicare contracts with private insurers to provide health insurance to Medicare beneficiaries. Vouchers are redundant because they simply provide an alternative mechanism to do something that is already being done. The difference being that Medicare requires certain standards to participate whereas a voucher would not, so a voucher is an inferior choice to what is already available.

[fosterliberty]

Medicare Advantage is an add on. No one has proposed any changes to the existing program. The R&R proposal simply offers the American people additional options. You can spin it any way you want to, but the facts are that you can choose to keep the present program or you can choose options that give you more control over your own destiny.

[feriwarlock]

"Under the R&R plan you have the choice of a defined benefit & traditional Medicare, or your own retirement account and a private subsidized health plan."

Seniors already have the choice of "a private subsidized health plan" right now. It's called Medicare Advantage, and there are literally hundreds of plans to choose from. Medicare Advantage has a very high satisfaction rate with seniors. The choice you speak of already exists, and therefore the changes you say need to happen, redundant.

[feriwarlock]

You need to try keeping up. Ryan is on record in his opinion that both SS and Medicare need to be dismantled based on some Ayn Rand book he read in high school. I'm sure that doesn't necessarily comport with what you already want to believe but that's besides the point. The stock market has done very well under Obama. We are fortunate he stopped the bleeding by gop fiscal malfeasance. We won't be giving the keys back to the drunks that drove the car into the ditch.

[fosterliberty]

Why would Romney or Ryan want to destroy Medicare and Social Security? They have nothing to gain by destroying the programs. My investments are doing perfectly fine, not as well as I would like given the Obama economy, but thanks to a smart strategy and good advice my portfolios are outperforming the market. Under the R&R plan you have the choice of a defined benefit & traditional Medicare, or your own retirement account and a private subsidized health plan.

[feriwarlock]

The choice you describe is a false one. The R/R plan is designed to destroy Medicare and SS as we know it. If you would like to invest your money in a private plan you can right now. It's called a 401K. Speaking of which, have you seen what some look like lately? All the more reason why we need a guaranteed defined benefit that will never expire. You seem hostile to people having security in their lives, which, ironically, I view as not only close minded but foolish.

[fosterliberty]

I would choose the voucher if I liked a private plan better. A lot of doctors refuse Medicare now due to lower rates of reimbursement. Why all the demonization of financial services? I would absolutely prefer to invest my money in the market than rely on a defined benefit from the US government.

To me you seem very close minded. You really cannot see the benefit in choice.

[feriwarlock]

No one is going to voluntarily "choose" a worthless voucher, and no one will voluntarily forego a defined benefit, so they can turn over their retirement to Wall Street to gamble with for a "potentially higher return." Not to mention all the skimming off the top by Wall Street fat cats. No thanks. That why is is called "Social Security" and not "Retirement Roulette." Fortunately, none of these plans you mention will ever see the light of day, since R/R will not be elected.

[fosterliberty]

The R&R plan allows you the choice to participate in traditional Medicare or obtain a voucher to purchase your own insurance plan that meets Medicare standards. I personally would probably prefer a voucher, and I am going to be affected by this change. The Social Security changes are the same as well. You can choose traditional defined benefit Social Security or you can choose to invest your Social Security dollars for potentially higher return. I'd definitely choose the latter.