Ryan's Plans For Medicare And Medicaid

For decades now, Medicare has been America’s health care backstop for the old. Medicaid, the backstop, the health care, for the poor. They’ve been lasting pillars, legacies, of the Great Society vision of this country.

This week, a new vision has been put on the table by Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican House Budget Committee chairman. A revolutionary remaking that would pull the plug on guarantees and put Americans much more on their own. Ryan says it’s a fiscal necessity.

This hour On Point: the proposed remaking of Medicare and Medicaid, and what it would mean for the country — and for you.
- Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Matthew DoBias, health care correspondent for the National Journal.

Gail Wilensky, an economist and senior fellow at Project Hope, an international health education foundation. She sits on the Board of Directors of Geisinger Health System, one of the top national delivery systems. She was Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, directing the Medicare and Medicaid programs under President George H.W. Bush, an adviser to John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign and a contributor to the McCain health care plan. She was first chair of Medicare Payment Advisory Commission to Congress.

Jonathan Oberlander, professor of social medicine and health policy & management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of "The Political Life of Medicare."