BELLA VISTA — Rep. Steve Womack, criticized Sen. Mark Pryor on Tuesday for “lashing out” at a Republican plan to privatize Medicare.
“Where are your solutions?” asked Womack, waving a copy of Tuesday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in the air before a crowd of about 120 mostly elderly Arkansans at Riordan Hall in Bella Vista.
The Republican said Democrats have no plan to save Medicare, which thenonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects to be insolvent as early as 2020.
Womack was in town to tout a Medicare plan devised by U.S.Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the House Budget Committee chairman.
Pryor wasn’t at the Bella Vista event, but he spoke out against the “Ryan plan” Monday at Emeritus SeniorLiving in Little Rock.
The Democratic senator was quoted in Tuesday’s Democrat-Gazette saying if the Ryan plan were passed into law, the elderly would pay for about 68 percent of their health care costs, up from the about 25 percent they currently pay. That, he said, would hurt the 500,023 people in Arkansas who receive benefits through the program.
“It greatly, greatly shifts the burden of paying for your health care to you and takes away the Medicare system,”Pryor said. “Shifting the cost to seniors is not the answer, it’s not the solution.”
“I don’t know where he’s getting those numbers,” Womack said after Tuesday’s Bella Vista town hall-style meeting. “Pryor said he can’t support our plan. Well, where’s his plan?”
Womack said he didn’t know if the numbers cited by Pryor are accurate.
On Monday, Pryor said a piecemeal approach should be taken to the Medicare problem, not an overhaul.
“I don’t think you cantweak something that’s as out of control as this program is,” Womack said to a constituent after the town hall meeting.
In late May, the U.S. Senate rejected a House of Representatives-passed budget plan drafted by Ryan that would privatize Medicare.
Arkansas’ two senators were split on the plan, with Pryor voting against it and Republican John Boozman voting for it. The state’s House delegation also split along party lines, with Democratic Rep. Mike Ross vot-ing against it and Republican Reps. Rick Crawford, Tim Griffin and Womack voting in favor.
Ryan’s proposal relied exclusively on spending cuts to reduce the government’s deficit, slicing $6.2 trillion over 10 years from Medicare and scores of other programs, including Medicaid, food stamps, farm subsidies and Pell college-tuition grants. It wouldn’t balance the government’s books until 2040, in part because it also would cut corporate and individual tax rates.
It would have replaced the traditional Medicare health care system for the elderly with subsidies to buy private insurance, starting with people who turn 65 in 2022.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that older Americans would pay a higher percentage of their incomes for health care under Ryan’s plan than they do in the current system.
Womack said he and Pryor “have fundamental disagreements” on political beliefs and what needs to be done to help the country.
Womack said the Ryan plan is called an insurance premium support program. He said it would introduce competition into the marketplace.
“Medicare would pay into the plan chosen by the person who’s covered, Womack said. “It’s not vouchers.”
The plan wouldn’t affect anyone 55 years old and older.
“We do not change a thing for anybody who is currently a Medicare recipient or anybody who is within 10 years of becoming Medicare eligible,” he said. “We recognize that you have planned your lives around it.”
Womack said he understands that some people won’t like the program or parts of it.
“I haven’t seen a plan out there that I can just wrap my arms around and hug to death,” he told the crowd. “But we have to do something. If there’s a better plan out there, I’d like to see it.”
Doing nothing will result in the demise of Medicare, Womack said.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 06/29/2011