Ryan’s health care plan mirrors Texas plan
If Republican vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan’s controversial plan for reforming Medicaid and Medicare sounds familiar in Texas, it should. The Wisconsin congressman’s proposal bears strong similarities to bills that Texas Republicans advocated for — and eventually passed — during the last legislative session.
Ryan’s congressional budget plan — so far trumped by Senate Democrats and the Obama administration — would replace Medicaid, the joint state-federal health insurance program for the disabled and impoverished children, with block grants to allow states to run the program as they see fit. And it would dramatically alter Medicare, offering the elderly who qualify for it “premium support” to purchase subsidized private insurance plans instead of directly paying for their medical costs.
