Ryan budget plan would reshape Medicare, Medicaid

The blueprint advanced by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., would attempt to rein in the long-term costs of Medicare and Medicaid while squeezing $6.2 trillion dollars from the nation's deficit over the next 10 years. The plan, which will be released today, comes as congressional leaders continue to face an impasse on short-term budget negotiations to avert a government shutdown.

The Wall Street Journal: Ryan's Plan For Medicare Is Huge Bet By GOP
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's proposal to fundamentally remake Medicare amounts to a giant gamble by House Republicans that the public is willing to accept major changes to some of the government's most popular programs in the shadow of trillion-dollar budget deficits (Weisman, 4/4).

The New York Times: GOP Blueprint Would Remake Health Policy
The proposal to be unveiled by House Republicans on Tuesday to rein in the long-term costs of Medicaid and Medicare represents a fundamental rethinking of how the two programs work, an ambitious effort by conservatives to address the nation's fiscal challenges, and a huge political risk (Pear, 4/4).

The Fiscal Times: Medicare and Medicaid Get Squeezed in Ryan Plan
Everyone agrees that controlling health care costs is the key to bringing long-term federal budget deficits under control. ... [I]t's important to consider how the two separate sides of our health care system - public plans and private plans - will interact should the [Ryan] Medicare privatization plan become law ... But just because the government slowed its spending doesn't mean that old people and the poor wouldn't have the same health care bills they had before (Goozner, 4/4).

Kaiser Health News: Questions Abound As Washington Awaits Ryan Plan For Medicare
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., will leave many details to Congress as he unveils Tuesday his plan to make major changes to Medicare as part of a fiscal 2012 budget resolution (4/4). Kaiser Health News also has a resource page with proposals and other information on curbing Medicare cost growth.

Modern Healthcare: GOP Plan Includes Medicaid Block Grants, Medicare Revamp
House Republicans on Tuesday are expected to unveil a fiscal 2012 budget they say will reduce deficits by $4.4 trillion over 10 years and build on the welfare reforms of the late 1990s by converting the federal share of Medicaid spending into block grants to states. ... In addition to block-grant funding for Medicaid—which Ryan said will allow states to "create a range of options and gives Medicaid patients access to better care"—the budget calls for changes to the Medicare program. The plan proposes that beginning in 2022, new Medicare beneficiaries would be enrolled in the same kind of health program as members of Congress. (House Budget Committee Chairman Paul) Ryan emphasized that this would not be a voucher program, but rather a "premium-support model" that would allow beneficiaries to choose a plan from a list of guaranteed options (Zigmond, 4/4).

The Washington Post: GOP 2012: Overhauls On Entitlements And Taxes, $6.2 Trillion In Cuts Over Decade
House Republicans plan to propose Tuesday historic changes to Medicare, Medicaid and other popular programs that pour federal money into Americans' lives, arguing that a sacrifice now will keep those programs solvent for the future (Rucker and Fahrenthold, 4/4).

Los Angeles Times: House Republicans To Propose $6.2 Trillion In Spending Cuts
The GOP proposal from Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, would cut spending below 2008 levels, while substantially changing the way Medicare and Medicaid are run. According to a Ryan aide who spoke Monday night, it aims to cut $4.4 trillion from federal deficits — four times the $1.1 trillion that Obama proposes (Mascaro, 4/5).

USA Today: House GOP Fiscal Plan Unveiled To Slice Off $4.4T
Federal health programs for seniors, the poor and people with disabilities would be slashed and transformed under a 2012 budget being unveiled today by House Republicans (Wolf, 4/5).

The Wall Street Journal: Congress Jousts As Budget Clock Ticks
Talks on fixing 2011 spending will heat up Tuesday when Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, introduces a GOP budget proposal for 2012 that would cut more than $5 trillion over 10 years, according to a House Republican aide. Mr. Ryan's proposal would overhaul the Medicare and Medicaid government health care programs, saving $2.2 trillion from health care alone over the next decade, according to another person briefed on its provisions (Bendavid and Paletta, 4/5).

NPR: GOP Budget Plan Would Transform Medicare For People Under 55
With the federal deficit in their sights, Republicans are preparing a budget proposal that would reportedly trim $4 trillion in government spending over the next decade. How do they do it? Ending Medicare as we know it is a key part (Horsley, 4/4).

The Associated Press: Obama, Boehner To Talk Budget Cuts At White House
Negotiations have stalled on legislation blending immediate spending cuts with the money required to run federal agencies through the end of September. Democrats are accusing the GOP of pressing harmful spending cuts and attaching a social policy agenda to the must-pass spending bill. House Speaker John Boehner counters that the White House is pressing gimmicky budget cuts (Taylor, 4/5).

The Fiscal Times: Six Fiscal Issues that Could Shut Down Government
3. Long-term budget reforms: ... By one count, there are at least a dozen proposals - large and small - for containing long-term domestic and defense spending, Medicare, Medicaid and other health care programs. .... 4. Medicaid: Federal and state officials desperate to control runaway health care costs are zeroing in on Medicaid, the monster health insurance program for low-income and disabled people, for massive savings in the coming years. Medicaid will cost the federal government and the states a record $465 billion this year, and that cost could more than double by 2021 without a substantial policy shift (Pianin and DePaul, 4/5).