York County congressional candidates agree on Medicare problem, disagree on solutions [York Daily Record, Pa.]

Sept. 23--YORK, Pa. --

Republican Scott Perry supports U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan's plan to create a private health insurance option for seniors using Medicare.

Democrat Harry Perkinson doesn't, and he says government needs to be focused on controlling the costs of healthcare. When it comes to Medicare, Perkinson said a slight increase in the payroll tax needs to be on the table.

$716 billion and Medicare

During a York 912 Patriots forum earlier this month, Scott Perry offered what's been a regular Republican critique of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

"Taking ... the $700 billion out of Medicare that the president's health care plan would do imperils that program desperately," Perry said, adding that he would vote to repeal the health care law.

Democrat Harry Perkinson responded at that forum, saying the funds Perry was referring to "came out of money to providers, not money to beneficiaries. And that was used to sustain the program -- Part A -- for a longer period of time."

In an interview, Perkinson said: "There's not a single beneficiary that lost any benefit or access."

PolitiFact, a nonpartisan fact-checking organization, has weighed in on the issue of the $716 billion.

It gave a "true" rating to a statement by former President Bill Clinton, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention on Sept. 5, on the topic.

PolitiFact wrote that the "health care law instituted a number of changes to reduce the growth of Medicare costs. At the time the law was passed, those reductions amounted to $500 billion over the next 10 years. Time's passage has only boosted that number."

And PolitiFact wrote that U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan's budget included the same reductions in Medicare, which were "mainly aimed at insurance companies and hospitals, not beneficiaries." And PolitiFact said that the overall Medicare budget is still projected to go up.

"Clinton said that Ryan attacked the president for 'the same amount of Medicare savings that (Ryan) had in his own budget.' Clinton is correct that the Ryan budget plan included cost savings that were part of the health care law," PolitiFact wrote, and then described Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's stance. "Just recently, the Romney campaign backed away from that plan, saying Romney's plan would restore the spending that the health law is set to curtail, such as extra funding for private insurers under the Medicare Advantage plan."

Resources

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Libertarian Mike Koffenberger wants to gradually phase out Medicare -- ditto for Medicaid and Social Security.

And Independent Wayne Wolff said government resources should be dedicated to finding fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, instead of to penalizing people who don't purchase health insurance under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Health care spending ties in to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid, economic growth the national debt and other issues.

"Medicare and Medicaid, which provide medical coverage for seniors, the poor and the disabled, together make up nearly a quarter of all federal spending," says a guide on the website for ProPublica, a nonprofit, investigative news organization. "With total Medicare spending projected to cost $7.7 trillion over the next 10 years, there is consensus that changes are in order. But what those changes should entail has, of course, been one of the hot-button issues of the campaign."

That's true in the 4th Congressional District, too. Here is a look at the positions of the four candidates who will appear on the ballot in November to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Todd Platts, R-York County.

"...it provides Americans choices"

During a York 912 Patriots forum earlier this month, Perry said affordability is the key to solving the Medicare and Medicaid problem.

Perry, a state lawmaker from Carroll Township, advocated for "tort reform on a grander scale" so "those ... who have had horrible things happen to them in the medical field can actually get the money, as opposed to the attorneys that represent them." And he advocated for selling and buying insurance across state lines, saying it "allows for competition, so that we can have choices."

Overall, Perry said, competition will make the health care industry more affordable. Perry supports repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

And he supports Ryan's plan for reforming Medicare.

"It helps provide the bridge for making Medicare solvent," Perry said in an interview, "while at the same time, it provides Americans choices."

President Barack Obama and Democratic allies have described Ryan's plan as turning Medicare into a voucher system. It's a claim that PolitiFact, a nonpartisan fact-checking organization, rated "mostly true," although Ryan has used the phrase "premium support" instead.

Ryan, the Republican nominee for vice president, is also chairman of the House Budget Committee.His latest plan for Medicare "would provide a set amount of money for future Medicare beneficiaries -- those currently under the age of 55 -- to purchase either a private health plan or the traditional government-administered program through a newly created Medicare exchange," according to Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit news organization that covers health care policy and politics. "That would begin in 2023."

"...transferring the risk..."

Perkinson, an engineer from York Township, doesn't support Ryan's plan.

"It's transferring the risk ... to the individuals as opposed to the government, which is much more capable of handling that risk," Perkinson said in an interview. "...The beneficiary winds up paying more and more."

Perkinson also said Ryan's plan doesn't give "us a cost-control mechanism for the rise in health care costs."

Perkinson has defended the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, saying at the York 912 Patriots forum that the cost-growth rate for medical spending has "dropped to 4 percent a year. It's still higher than the inflation rate, which was 2.5 percent last year. We need to get it down to the inflation rate or below that, but right now, it's doing what it's designed to do. ...It's dropping the cost there."

Perkinson's website says the 2010 health care reform law slows the growth of Medicare spending and extends the solvency of Part A from 2017 to 2024, and he advocates for other ways to control health care costs.

He said lawmakers also need to consider increasing the payroll tax, adding that the 1.45 percent rate that employers and employees pay for Medicare "hasn't gone up since the program was conceived" in the 1960s.

"Progress can be made ..."

Koffenberger, a Baltimore County police officer from Hopewell Township, advocates for phasing out Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid over a period of decades, saying they are unsustainable.

"Hopefully, there's no postal carriers in here tonight," Koffenberger said at the York 912 Patriots forum. "But if we can't even deliver the mail in a cost-effective manner, how can we expect our government to control our health care? Our retirement planning?"

He also says he supports a full repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, saying on his website that, "Progress can be made on the issues that matter most: no denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions and lower costs. These CAN be done through true free market reforms."

" ... let's put that effort towards cutting down on fraud."

Wolff of North Hopewell Township said he believes the individual mandate in the health care reform law is unconstitutional, and he said resources used to enforce it could be better used.

"As far as Medicare and Medicaid ... everybody talks about Medicaid fraud. Instead of ... hiring 10,000 or 12,000 IRS agents to go find the people that aren't going to get insurance and get them to pay their $750 fine, let's put that effort towards cutting down on fraud," Wolff, a senior key account representative for Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., said at the York 912 Patriots forum.

On his website, Wolff also said those IRS agents could be "used to investigate and prosecute Medicare fraud."

He also said Medicare should be able to negotiate lower prices for drugs. His website says insurance companies should be allowed to compete across state lines. And he said health care coverage should not be linked to employment.

And if the government eliminates that tax exemption for employers, Wolff said that money shouldn't be used to create a tax credit for employees.

"If you're an employer and you choose not to take that money and increase somebody's wages, instead you want to invest it in your business -- that should be your option," Wolff said.

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