Medicare as a Metaphor

Congressman Paul Ryan's choice as Romney's vice-presidential pick quickly ignited Medicare as a metaphor for American social policy. In other words, Medicare has morphed from a government insurance program, primarily for senior citizens, into a social concept. Do we want to take care of our nation's middle class, poor, disabled, children and veterans, or not? Medicare symbolizes all of the above.

Ryan's VP pick has unequivocally opened this long simmering national debate. His self named "plan" to reduce the nation's deficit by cutting spending (without raising revenue) was just another dusty Congressional document until Ryan's pick by Romney launched the "Ryan Plan" into the national spotlight. 

Now, there's a real risk that a Romney-Ryan administration will change progressive social policies like Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, Veteran's benefits, Planned Parenthood, Head Start, student loans and so forth.

Does the Ryan Plan really propose to cut these and other important programs? Obviously, I'm not sure because I certainly haven't read the document. But, changing Medicare is a central component of the Ryan Plan. What he proposes is for Medicare to morph into a voucher system. It's terrible public policy. But, a Voucher system is a cash cow for private insurance companies that will sell confusing products.

It's unclear if the Vouchers will include the Medicare Part D drug benefit. It's unclear how the Voucher products will cover physician specialty care. It's just unclear about how much money a Voucher program will cut or cost.

A Medicare Voucher system is a metaphor for all the social safety net programs, passed by Congress with rigorous public vetting over the past 80 years, since the FDR singing of the Social Security law.http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2004/site_packages/ss_privatization/3150fdrs_soc_sec.html

Because the Ryan Voucher proposal is flawed, all other proposals in his plan are tainted. It's just like your mother said, "Watch the company you keep'.  If Medicare is cut, so, it probably goes, for all the other social safety net programs. 

What's most alarming about the Medicare Metaphor is the complete lack of data to support regressive social policies. Instead of cutting social programs, our nation should be focused on improving our nation's quality of life. For example, our nation's infant mortality rate is 34th in the world, where Singapore and Iceland are among the best. (Infant mortality is often used as an indicator of the level of health in a country.) 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_mortality_rate

Our nation's educational outcomes are outpaced by other countries in reading, science and math. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading

In fact, US life expectancy is 38th in the world, while Japan is first.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

Meanwhile, the US tax rates are lower than most highly developed. countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_rates

Polls indicate presidential candidate Romney didn't get the political "bump" he hoped for from his selection of Paul Ryan as a running mate.  The lackluster roll out of his VP pick has the probably unintended consequence of putting Romney's vision for the nation's future into the spotlight.  If Romney's vision for the future includes imposing the "Ryan Budget" on us, then, at least, his choice created a clear understanding of why he should not become our President.  

Medicare is a metaphor for the concept of caring.  

Romney flubbed up on the Ryan roll out. He wasn't prepared for questions about how the Ryan Budget impacts the struggling middle class.  My suggestion is for Romney-Ryan to completely rethink their political strategy and embrace both Medicare the program and the metaphor it represents about a nation of caring people.