Henry Aaron, Inventor Of Paul Ryan's Medicare Reform Concept, Explains Why It's Wrong WASHINGTON -- The co-creator of the concept that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is relying upon to reform Medicare no longer thinks it will work. Henry Aaron, now of the Brookings Institution, got the chance to tell Ryan exactly why at a recent Capitol Hill hearing. Aaron and former Urban Institute president Robert Reischauer came up with the idea of "premium support" in 1995, after the failure of then-First Lady Hillary Clinton's bid to reform the health care system. The basic idea is simple: let people pick their health insurers in the private market, subsidize the premiums, and competition will drive down costs. That's the theory behind Ryan's plan, recently endorsed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in a white paper the two wrote. It differs from Aaron's original vision -- in part because it has fewer protections for beneficiaries -- but the essential concept is the same. Aaron said this isn't the time to test it out. "In the years since Bob Reischauer and I put this Idea forward, I've changed my mind," Aaron said at a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee last week. The big reason is that Aaron has seen no evidence since the two men came up with the idea that their assumptions have been borne out. Aaron has not abandoned the idea of premium support for Medicare, if it can be figured out. He argued that rather than trying to do it right away, as Ryan and other proponents insist, policymakers should first see how it works for younger people -- as it is beginning to be applied in the health care reform law. "The passage of the Affordable Care Act means we have put in place a key element of the premium support idea for the rest of the population, namely health insurance exchanges," Aaron said. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/henry-aaron-paul-ryan-medicare_n_1466826.html
if you thought about it long enough you might come to the conclusion that you will never see that as long as republicans have filibuster power. that being the case you had better build on obamacare because if the republicans are able to destroy that you are back to the mercy of insurance companies whose primary focus is to exclude anyone who actually needs insurance.
What a bullshit answer. The dems had the power to pass single payer. They needed to tell the insurance companies to jump in a lake. Instead they corrupted themselves and their party with insurance money. Single would have passed if they relieved the burden of health care from business. It would have made everything we made more competitive from cars to airplanes and bombs... and it would have been far cheaper to employ people. This one is on the democrats. They sold out our country for insurance company campaign money.
this is not true but is to be expected coming from you. in any case its beside the point. we have what we have now and anybody who thinks the republicans,who now run the house, will do anything to help consumers of health care is delusional.
Republicans have been blocking single payer from Truman's to Obama's presidency.There are far more democrats in support of single payer then there are republicans but its no surprise you hold republicans to a different standard Democrats can have A president ,45 Senators and 200 House members in support of single payer and only need a few republicans to go along but when it fails due to a few blue dog democrats and all republicans being against it you would rather blame the democrats