September 04, 2011 05:44 PM UTC

Tipton on Medicare

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• by: ClubTwitty

Today’s Grand Junction Daily Sentinel has a guest column by Rep. Scott Tipton, defending the GOP Medicare plan.  It is also posted on the congressman’s web page.

With little detail, and lots of familiar talking points, he describes the plan as one that would:

Protect seniors and those a decade from retirement, ensuring that they receive their promised benefits in full.

Increase accountability and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.

Provide choice for beneficiaries so that they have the same choices as members of Congress.

Eliminate IPAB and keep critical health care decisions between patients and doctors.

There are a few ‘tells’ between the boilerplate, however, after the fold.

Nothing of course spells out specifically what ‘providing choice’ will mean to future retirees. Although one might find some hints:

Our plan expands access to care, giving future retirees the choice to select from competing health care plans that best meet their needs, offering the same options and choices that members of Congress have.

While that sounds focus-group approved, it glosses over at least one important detail. Perhaps the ‘same choices’ but presumably NOT the $174k annual salary (or cushy retirements) that Members of Congress enjoy.  Selecting among competing plans is one thing–if you are among the shrinking pool of Americans with a six-figure income.  

That of course is not most of America’s seniors. The majority of whom live on fixed incomes.  And particularly so for those just above the poverty line, who would bear the brunt of the pain.  This is a point that the congressman himself recognizes.  Sort of.  

Under the law, the president’s appointees to the Independent Payment Advisory Board are guaranteed a six-figure salary and terms longer than the president and members of Congress. This setup ensures that those in charge of running what is essentially the president’s “Medicare IRS” never personally feel the pain of the cuts they make.

Whether or not the author appreciated the irony of those sentences being is this op-ed is unknown.  It does seem for his part, Mr. Tipton is incensed about government figures receiving large salaries–ones other than himself and his staff I suppose.  Medicare exists to ensure that all of America’s seniors have at least a basic level of care, not only those who were lucky enough to once grace the Halls of Congress.