Romney-Ryan plan would repeal Reagan's spousal safety net

[highplainsdem]

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-a-budget/243503-romney-ryan-plan-would-repeal-reagans-spousal-safety-net

Here’s what’s at stake. Medicare covers doctor bills and hospital bills but it provides for only a short period of nursing home care. If a nursing home patient exhausts his or her own Medicare coverage and all of his or her personal resources, which happens to most Americans after a year or so in a nursing home, Medicaid will then cover the cost of the care. About one-third of all Medicaid payments are for long-term care.

But in the early 1980s, most if not all state Medicaid programs required a patient to deplete not only all of his or her resources but those of their spouse as well. If a wife or husband was in a nursing home, their combined savings and income were reduced to near poverty levels before the spouse could get Medicaid coverage. People who had worked and saved all of their lives were in many instances living on a budget that allowed little recreation, nothing more than a very frugal diet, and in some instances moving to substandard housing because of their spouse’s illness.

That changed in 1988 when President Reagan signed legislation that forced states to grant Medicaid coverage based on the financial condition of the patient and allowed the spouses of patients to protect enough assets and income to live with some degree of comfort and dignity.

But twice in the past two years, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s newly announced choice for his vice presidential running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), has taken a budget proposal to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives that would not only drastically slash federal support for state Medicaid programs over the next decade but also eliminate all mandates—including the ban on spousal impoverishment. Disturbingly, that plan developed and pushed by Rep. Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, was adopted in the House on both occasions. The Ryan budget failed to become law only because of objections in the U.S. Senate and the threat of a veto from the White House.

-snip-

I don't remember hearing about this detail of Ryan's crazy budget plans before.

Dems need to make sure this gets a lot of attention -- both the harm it would do to so many senior citizens, and the fact this is a Reagan-era safety net that Ryan wants to destroy.

[my2sense]

1. They've

left no stone unturned in order to screw the middle class. It's sickening.

[highplainsdem]

4. Agreed.

[tanyev]

2. Hells bells, my mom would have been left with nothing without that provision

when she had to put Dad in the nursing home twelve years ago. As it was, quite a bit of their hard-earned savings had to go to the nursing home before Dad qualified for Medicaid. That was when I urged her to at least get herself a new car because her old car was getting very unreliable. I'm glad she listened to me--she's still driving that car, although she doesn't go very far these days.

[Downwinder]

3. Family Values people want you to divorce.

[JBoy]

5. It's actually just another part of their "die quickly" health care approach

[Downwinder]

6. Sometimes it is not that easy to die quickly.

Maybe it is an incentive to keep going just to spite them.

[Scalded Nun]

7. The truly evil nature of these people

knows no bounds.

They want nothing to be available to 'normal' people.

If you strip (figuratively) a person to the bone they are easy to dehumanize. Once that is accomplished you can get away with anything you want. This is the 1-2% vision for our society. Their elected puppets are making this happen.

I pray this country sees this for what it is before it is too late.

[riverbendviewgal]

8. It seems they want to go back to the Middle ages

They want to be the elite, have a few barons and lords and the rest be serfs and slaves.

Glad I live in Canada.

I just don't to go to the USA anymore. I am now planning on see the western part of Canada and Europe. The appeal of America is now lost for me.

[dsteve01]

9. Here Here!

To Paul Ryan being a sociopath like his mentor, Ayn Rand!

[tomm2thumbs]

10. shredded safety net for the poor, built a hammock for the rich

sounds about just like Romney

[highplainsdem]

11. kick

[Texas-Limerick]

12. Ryan's Song

Ryan's Song

(to True Blood's Bad Things )

When you rolled up and took that handicapped slot
But I had to park at the back of the lot
I don't know who you think you are
But before this session's through
I wanna do bad things to you

Just 'cause you lay up in your room
Heart attack an' eyes filled up with blue
I know you leach off of me
And I know this much is true
I wanna do bad things to you

When you got old and went from maker to taker
You might as well moved to hell's half acre
I don't know who you think you are
But before this session's through
I wanna do bad things to you
I wanna do real bad things to you

You don't know what you've done to me
But you should know this much is true
I wanna do bad things to you
I wanna do real bad things to  you