Medicare: Separating fact from fiction

President Obama stood up for Medicare. He added eight years to the life of Medicare by cracking down on waste and fraud. And he did it without touching seniors’ benefits. In fact, he added new benefits for seniors, like better drug coverage and free preventive care.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would turn Medicare into a voucher program, bankrupting it by 2016.

To distract Americans from those consequences, Romney and Ryan are launching a dishonest and hypocritical attack on the savings in Obamacare. Here’s a look at what’s fact and what’s false when it comes to Medicare.

As the nonpartisan AARP notes, President Obama’s health care law “expands the number of people eligible for free preventive and wellness benefits, and cracks down on Medicare fraud, waste and abuse.” Romney and Ryan would repeal these new benefits and turn Medicare into a voucher program. Here are the key differences between the candidates’ plans for seniors.

    Under President Obama:

  • Guaranteed Benefits for seniors will not be cut. Medicare will see significant savings as future spending is reduced over ten years.
  • Millions of Medicare recipients receive free preventive services like cancer screenings and annual wellness visits.
  • Prescription drugs get more affordable for seniors in the coverage gap and the “doughnut hole” will fully close by 2020, saving them hundreds to thousands of dollars.
  • Medicare will remain solvent for an additional eight years.

    Under Romney-Ryan:

  • Medicare will be turned into a voucher program, which can increase a typical 65-year-old’s out-of-pocket costs by up to $6,350.
  • Obamacare would be repealed, eliminating free preventive services for seniors.
  • The “doughnut hole” coverage gap would remain, forcing seniors to pay thousands for their prescription drugs.
  • Medicare would be bankrupt in 2016.