Individual Article Rebuttal

XBCOM/275 Business Communication and Critical Thinking

Week Four
August 19th, 2012

Individual Article Rebuttal The article I chose was “House Republican budget to seek Medicare reforms”. The reason I selected this particular article is because my husband with end stage renal disease is a recipient of the Medicare program. Recently, Paul Ryan told reporters that although their reforms had not been fully established yet, they would be similar to the plan the Republican Party came up with in 2011; a plan to essentially privatize Medicare. Paul Ryan is congressman from the State of Wisconsin, currently the House Budget Committee Chairman and nominee of the Republican Party for Vice President of the United States in the 2012 election. Medicare on its basic form is a fee-for-service program that encompasses services that help pay for hospital stays, doctor visits and prescription coverage. The reforms the Republican Party is trying to make to Medicare are aligned to transform the current program into a method that uses vouchers so beneficiaries can use it to buy insurance separately. Although the plan proposed by Republicans is much like the Democrats in the sense that it would not affect current recipients or those near getting the benefit, the Republican reform would affect the population under 55 years of age. The increases on health care costs in our country would create a big difference between what the government would pay for health care and what individuals would spend on out-of-pocket costs. Another problem I see with this article is that the reforms do not take into consideration some of the limitations private insurance have with their policies; for example, some of them do not include free preventive care and their reforms would make beneficiaries pay for the difference. Also, Congressman Ryan mentioned how these reforms would strongly reduce our current budget deficit but it lacks an actual amount to which Medicare, Medicaid and other programs affecting the lower class, the poor, and the sick would be cut. I am only 27 years old, and I believe anyone under the age of 55 should pay attention to laws that can potentially affect our future, not just for ourselves but our children too.

References

Reuters.com. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/21/us-usa-congress-budget-idUSTRE80K02620120121
Mittromney.com. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.mittromney.com/issues/medicare
Paulryan.house.gov. (2012). Retrieved from http://paulryan.house.gov/issues/issue/?IssueID=9969
Barackobama.com. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.barackobama.com/medicare-facts-ad
Aarp.org. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-insurance/info-04-2011/medicare-coverage.html