Three Pinocchios for DNC Chair’s Mediscare Attacks
In case you didn’t see it, this morning the Washington Post’s Fact Checker column gave three Pinocchios to Democrat National Committee Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s claim that the Medicare proposals in the House-passed budget would throw seniors “to the wolves.” From the column:
Wasserman Schultz did not say voucher, but her statement suggests that people would be handed a check (“X number of dollars”) and then have to go out and find a plan that they can afford. She also said the plan would “allow insurance companies to deny you coverage and drop you for pre-existing conditions.”
Neither of those claims are true. The system as envisioned by Republicans would operate much like the Medicare prescription drug plan currently does. The government would not give people a check or anything like that; the government would handle the funds, just as they do under the drug plan. As the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said when it examined the plan, “The premium support payments would go directly from the government to the plans that people selected.”
Meanwhile, different plans approved by Medicare would compete for business, as under the drug plan. Moreover, the GOP proposal specifically says that to participate in the Medicare exchange, insurance companies would have to accept all retirees.
This of course does not represent the first time Democrats have been accused of what the Post called “scaremongering metaphors” when it comes to Republican plans for entitlement reform. But it does raise another question: If she doesn’t like the House Republican plan, then exactly what kind of entitlement reform is the DNC chair FOR?