off the charts
POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s Medicare proposals — summarized in a new CBPP analysis — have evolved since Ryan issued his Roadmap for America’s Future in 2010, but much is still the same in the budget plan he released last week.
The centerpiece of Ryan’s Medicare plan remains premium support — replacing Medicare’s guarantee of health coverage with a flat payment, or voucher, that beneficiaries would use to purchase coverage. But the details have changed significantly over the years.
- Ryan now retains a form of traditional fee-for-service Medicare as an option. His earliest proposals would have phased out traditional Medicare, which would have substantially increased health care costs, since traditional Medicare has lower administrative expenses and payment rates than private insurance plans.
- Ryan now bases the amount of the premium-support payment on a weighted average of bids by private plans and traditional Medicare. In last year’s proposal, the payment would have been set below the average bid.
- Ryan no longer mentions a limit on the annual growth of the premium-support voucher, as did his previous proposals.
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