Reducing Medicare in any given year is a dangerous political endeavor. An historically unpopular president’s action in a year when there is a presidential election shows faith in tribal myths intended to trump voter knowledge. It appears that partisans believe Americans will never accept that President Joe Biden would dare to make cuts to Medicare. To the surprise of many, however, the Biden administration’s most recent budget included a rate drop in the well-liked Medicare Advantage program.
A guy who seemed a lot like former Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) wheeled an elderly grandmother around a park during the 2012 campaign season, while America the Beautiful played over the sounds of chirping birds. Ryan, the Republican Party’s vice presidential nominee in 2012, then pushed the elderly grandmother from her wheelchair and down a cliff while directing viewers to contact their legislators and demand that they leave Medicare alone in order to “keep America beautiful.”
The mainstream media mocked the 2012 Romney-Ryan ticket for Ryan’s pedantic attempts to start the long-overdue conversation about entitlement reform. Naturally, incessant advertisements asserting that “Republicans intend to shred your Medicare and Social Security!” received his kind analysis with disdain. The exclamation point of the Ryan doppelgänger throwing granny out of her wheelchair capped that story.
The same person who recently slashed Medicare continues to accuse Republicans of “wanting to reduce Medicare” by 2024. “The Extreme House Republican Plan Would Cut Social Security And Medicare While Slashing Taxes for Big Corporations and the Wealthy,” the White House said last week. The House budget—or even a bill—was not, in reality, what the White House neglected to mention. The estimate, which said, “This analysis anticipates an across-the-board cut of around 31% relative to the presently legislated FY 2024 levels for non-defense discretionary (NDD) accounts,” was based on a “study committee” report. The White House generated this ridiculous study, not some political action organization. Naturally, the aim was to mitigate any adverse impacts of the Medicare Advantage rate reduction.
Biden did not just suggest changes to Medicare Advantage (MA) twelve years from now, though. Despite industry projections of a 4 to 6 percent growth rate, he lowered rates from a forecast of 2.44 percent to 2.33 percent. Single-payer proponents frequently attack Medicare Advantage because it gives customers options. MA gives seniors the freedom to select what they want covered by their health care coverage, in contrast to the liberals’ preferred one-size-fits-all Soviet model of healthcare. Thus, this cut is advantageous for Biden’s single-payer supporters. However, what about the elderly populations in Wisconsin, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona?
Medicare Advantage, also referred to as Medicare Part C, is an elective program that gives seniors the freedom to select any insurance plan that meets their needs for hospital stays and doctor visits under Medicare. The concept has gained a lot of traction and expanded swiftly. In reality, last year’s Medicare Advantage enrollment rate increased to 51% of seniors from 26% in 2010.
“The 2.8 million Florida seniors now enrolled in Medicare Advantage, many of whom live on a fixed income, would have their supplementary benefits reduced by $33 per month, or $396 per year, as a result of this Medicare Advantage benefits decrease,” stated Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL). Furthermore, “nearly 60% of Florida’s Medicare recipients select Medicare Advantage because it works,” as Scott points out.
Given how hard it is to refute entrenched political tropes, particularly in the present media landscape, you are unlikely to see political attack advertisements with Vice President Kamala Harris or Joe Biden pushing grandmothers over a precipice in response to this Medicare reduction. However, it goes beyond that. Voters are becoming more cynical and impervious to hypocrisy as political advertisements shift from traditional media like radio and television to smartphones and social media platforms. Who knows, maybe this year people will truly realize that Republicans merely want to give grandmothers and all seniors the freedom to select the health care solutions that best suit their particular needs, rather than pushing them over any precipices.
Author: Steven Sinclaire
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