If I am calculating this right, under current law the CBO projects that the U.S. government will spend $35,000 year-2010 dollars to cover a 75-year old Medicare patient in 2050.
Under the Ryan plan, however, the CBOI projects that a 75-year old Medicare patient in 2050 will have to spend $52,000 year-2010 dollars to buy a Medicare-equivalent plan in 2050. Of this, Medicare will reimburse the patient for--a mere $10,000.
Plus there are all the Medicare copays that 75 year olds will have to pay...
Why the $15,000 difference? Because without Medicare's bargaining power on the other side for-profit hospitals and for-profit doctors will charge more, and because of the extraordinary overhead of private health insurance companies as they spend trillions trying to figure out how to craft their policies so as not to pay for sick people.
That is a truly extraordinary plan to propose...
