Income Redistribution from the Poor to the Rich

Dean Baker reports on the Ryan plan and makes the point made in the post below about shifting the cost of healthcare inflation to retirees. He makes another point, however, that he thinks is even more important. The non-partisan CBO reports that ending Medicare will increase income to health care providers and insurance companies by $30 trillion over the planning cycle used by the CBO. That is because Medicare pays lower prices to providers than private insurers, and because Medicare is more efficient than insurance companies. The Ryan plan is a reverse income redistribution plan. It shifts income from ordinary Americans to wealthy Americans by privatizing Medicare and by the $2.9 trillion in tax cuts that go primarily to the wealthiest Americans.