Medicare, health policies stay in spotlight at top of the ticket

The Washington Post compares how Medicare fares under the health law versus under the Ryan plan, while NBC questions whether the GOP effort to hammer President Obama for reducing Medicare spending to pay for the health overhaul will work -- especially since GOP budget proposals make the same cuts.

The Washington Post: Ryan Vs. Obama: Who Protects Medicare More?
Which protects Medicare better, the Ryan budget or the Affordable Care Act? That's shaping up to be the big policy question of the presidential election. Medicare's trustees say that the cuts to the program included in the ACA will maintain the solvency of the Medicare hospital insurance trust fund for another eight years. Critics, such as Romney campaign adviser Avik Roy, argue that the ACA cuts don't help the program's solvency because they go to fund insurance coverage for low- and middle-income people. In the Ryan budget, Roy argues, the same cuts are preserved but used to shore up the trust fund (Matthews, 8/23).

NBC: Will The GOP's Counter-Offensive On Medicare Be Enough?
Anticipating having to play defense this fall on the issue of Medicare, Republicans have been preparing a strategy for the upcoming elections: punch back. And this strategy undoubtedly assumed more urgency after Mitt Romney selected Paul Ryan -- the author of a Republican budget that overhauls the government-run health insurance program for seniors -- as his running mate, which only elevated Medicare as a central issue in November. The Republican strategy entails accusing President Obama of cutting $716 billion from Medicare -- and then, taking it a step further, by linking those cuts to paying for the president's health care reform law (O'Brian, 8/23).

A pair of stories from the Associated Press detail different takes on the Romney Medicare plan -- especially how it will work among and within families -

The Associated Press/Washington Post: Romney-Ryan Medicare Overhaul Plan Could Give Rise to A New Family Dynamic: Health Care Envy
As the issue rises in importance in the presidential campaign, it's leading to inevitable comparisons for couples and siblings who are just a few years apart -; and sometimes perhaps a touch of envy. The proposal came from Romney's running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan. But Romney has largely embraced it, throwing a brighter spotlight on the question of whether and how to revamp the retiree health care program (8/23).

The Associated Press: At 55 And 53, Couple Split By Romney Medicare Plan
Mike O'Malley is 55; wife Sharon is 53. So what? So they're on opposite sides of the age cutoff in Mitt Romney's Medicare plan, and that could create a bumpy transition for the suburban Chicago couple and others like them. It would be the difference between being in the traditional program for the elderly and a less certain future (Johnson, 8/23).

In addition, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney ranks his Massachusetts health plan above the 2010 health law - 

The Associated Press/Washington Post: Romney: Massachusetts Health Care Plan Better Than Obama's Insurance Law
Claiming health care bragging rights, Mitt Romney said Thursday his plan to provide health insurance to everyone in Massachusetts was superior to the one it inspired, President Barack Obama's much-debated national law. "My health care plan I put in place in my state has everyone insured, but we didn't go out and raise taxes on people and have a unelected board tell people what kind of health care they can have," Romney said in an interview with CBS' Denver affiliate, KCNC (8/23).

The Hill: Romney Defends His Mass. Health Care Law As Better Than Obama's
Mitt Romney on Thursday defended the healthcare overhaul he oversaw in Massachusetts as better than the federal law it inspired. "My healthcare plan I put in place in my state has everyone insured," Romney told a CBS affiliate in Denver on Thursday, "but we didn't go out and raise taxes on people and have a unelected board tell people what kind of healthcare they can have." Both the Massachusetts law and President Obama's Affordable Care Act seek to expand healthcare coverage through an individual mandate to buy insurance. Both also established unelected boards to help accomplish the laws' objectives (Viebeck, 8/23).