Voters see Medicare as the most important health care issue for their vote. Seniors are more likely to trust Obama on the health law's future. And a lot of people seem to be forgetting what Obamacare actually does.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says his plan to repeal Obamacare's $716 billion in Medicare cuts would put the program onto a path towards long-term solvency. The non-partisan Medicare trustees, however, say it would do just the opposite.
Two economists looked at the impact of Medicare reimbursement cuts in the 1990s. What they found: Hospitals that saw bigger budget reductions had worse mortality rates for heart attack patients.
How did Medicare cuts grow from $500 billion - the number Republicans seized on during the 2010 midterms - to $716 billion this time around? Two words: budget window.
The health care law makes a big bet: Tethering providers' salaries to the quality of care they provide will improve outcomes. Researchers at the British Medical Journal think there's a big flaw in that plan.
That $716 billion figure is one you'll probably be hearing a lot about during this election cycle. It's worth understanding where it comes from and what the spending reductions mean for the Medicare program.
Since the Romney campaign wants to run against President Obama's cuts to Medicare, it's something of a problem for them that Paul Ryan's budget includes those very same cuts to Medicare. And so they've come up with a somewhat confused and confusing argument to distinguish the two plans.
It's a conservative myth that the White House hasn't put forward a Medicare reform plan. What that line really means is that White House hasn't put forward some variant of Paul Ryan's plan. But they've put forward their own.
If you've heard of Paul Ryan, you've heard of Paul Ryan's budget. But Ryan has been in the House of Representatives for fourteen years, and has proposed many, many others bills. Looking through the Library of Congress' records, by my count Ryan has sponsored 71 bills or amendments, and cosponsored 971 bills. That's a lot of legislation, and some of it is pretty interesting.
It's a common refrain about the Affordable Care Act: The law will become more popular as benefits take effect. But what happens if the benefits start to roll out, and nobody notices?
The Post Most: Business
Blog Contributors
Ezra Klein is the editor of Wonkblog and a columnist at the Washington Post, as well as a contributor to MSNBC and Bloomberg. His work focuses on domestic and economic policymaking, as well as the political system that’s constantly screwing it up. He really likes graphs, and is on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. E-mail him here.
Suzy Khimm covers the budget, economic policy, and financial regulatory reform. Before coming to Washington, she was based in Brazil and Southeast Asia, where she wrote for the Economist, Slate, and the Wall Street Journal Asia. Follow her on Twitter here, and email her here.
Sarah Kliff covers health policy, focusing on Medicare, Medicaid and the health reform law. She tries to fit in some reproductive health and education policy coverage, too, alongside an occasional hockey reference. Her work has appeared in Newsweek, Politico, and the BBC. She is on Twitter and Facebook.
Brad Plumer is a reporter focusing on energy and environmental issues. He was previously an associate editor at The New Republic. Follow him on Twitter. Email him here.
