Medicare takes center stage as president, Ryan address AARP

The Washington Post: At AARP Summit, Campaigns Joust Over Ryan Medicare Plan
GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan's plan to overhaul Medicare returned to the political spotlight Friday as both presidential campaigns jabbed each other during a summit of the AARP, the country's top advocacy group for seniors. Both Ryan, who addressed the group in person, and President Obama, who spoke ahead of Ryan via a video feed ..., accused the other side of advancing ideas that would undermine and destroy the popular health-care program for the elderly and the disabled (Sonmez and Nakamura, 9/21). 

The New York Times: Obama And Ryan Trade Blasts Over Medicare At AARP Convention
In back-to-back appearances at the AARP convention in New Orleans, Mr. Obama and Mr. Ryan, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, both insisted that their policies would safeguard Medicare. Mr. Ryan faced a far less friendly audience, drawing widespread boos and cries of "No!" when he called for the repeal of Mr. Obama's health care law (Landler and Oppel, 9/21).

The Wall Street Journal: Seniors Lobby Is Cool To Ryan Pitch
Mr. Ryan was joined by his 78-year-old mother at the event in New Orleans. The Wisconsin congressman explained the proposal he and Mr. Romney have laid out to eventually let the elderly and disabled choose between traditional Medicare and federally subsidized private-insurance plans. He assured the crowd that the GOP plan would make no changes for those 55 and older and would allow future seniors to choose among coverage options. Private health-insurance plans would be subsidized by what Republicans call premium support and what Democrats call vouchers (Nelson, 9/21). 

Los Angeles Times: Paul Ryan Runs Into Trouble With AARP
Just five minutes into his talk at the gathering of the powerful 50-and-older lobby, Mitt Romney's running mate -; the architect of the Republican proposal to change Medicare for the next generation of seniors -; was repeatedly interrupted as he criticized resident Obama's healthcare law. "The first step to a stronger Medicare is to repeal Obamacare, because it represents the worst of both worlds," Ryan said as the crowd in New Orleans booed audibly (Mascaro, Hennessey and Reston, 9/21). 

The Hill: Seniors Boo Ryan At Medicare Speech
In his remarks, Obama defended his signature healthcare and told seniors that Romney and Ryan would leave them "at the mercy of insurance companies." Appearing via satellite to the AARP conference, Obama made an aggressive political and policy argument against his GOP rivals' proposal. "The problem is that insurance companies, once they're getting vouchers, they're really good at recruiting the younger, healthier Medicare recipients," leaving only older and sicker patients in the government program, the president said (Baker, 9/21).

Politico: Paul Ryan Booed At AARP Conference
Ryan's reception during the New Orleans speech underscored the political volatility of Ryan's place on the ticket. He was picked by Mitt Romney largely on the basis of his plan to achieve major budget savings by reforming Medicare and turning it into a voucher program by the year 2023. But polls have shown that changing the popular health care program for the elderly is unpopular with voters, and even more so with the elderly. Ryan argued against criticism of his plan for Medicare, calling the word voucher a "poll-tested word basically designed to scare today's seniors" (Summers, 9/21).

Kaiser Health News: Obama, Ryan Offer Dueling Visions Of Medicare To AARP Members
GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan was booed and heckled on Friday when he told an AARP convention in New Orleans that he would repeal President Barack Obama's health law. In contrast, Obama's remarks about Medicare --delivered by live satellite an hour earlier -- were warmly received (Galewitz, 9/21).

Meanwhile, one fact checker finds fault with both campaigns.

The Washington Post: A Bipartisan Foul: 'Medicare Is Going Broke'
We have bipartisan agreement! Medicare is going broke, busted, bankrupt…or is it? We have touched on this before but decided to take another stab after the new ad featuring Sen. Rubio was released by the Romney campaign. It's actually a fairly effective ad, with the calm message that the GOP Medicare plan -; so often inaccurately attacked by Democrats -; is designed to "save" it for current retirees and be different for younger Americans, in what Rubio pitches as a bit of a gift from one generation to another. But his line that Medicare is going "broke" -; using simple "math" -; repeats a bit of political hokum that both parties persist in repeating (Kessler, 9/21).