Medicare: Who's scaring whom?

This week on the campaign trail, both the president and his challenger are trying to convince voters that the other is trying to destroy Medicare, the health insurance plan for the elderly.

Since being named Mitt Romney’s vice presidential running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan has been under fire from the left for his Medicare reform policies. The Obama administration wants you to believe that, if elected, Ryan would destroy Medicare and leave elderly Americans high and dry.

Make no mistake about it: The Medicare entitlement program is broken and needs to be fixed, or future generations won’t have a supplemental program to help them when they’re older and unable to work or when they don’t have a comprehensive medical insurance program.

We will all encounter Medicare at some point in our lives — whether we use it ourselves or to help care for family members or friends.

So why does the left think Ryan’s plan is so catastrophic for older Americans? It offers a choice among private plans rather than limiting participants to the current government-run Medicare program. The private plans would compete against one another and create a competitive marketplace, with better care and better services. Those who want to continue with their current plan would have that option. Most important, the Ryan plan would apply only to people eligible for Medicare after 2032, not to people who are currently on Medicare.

Don’t be scared away by the rhetoric.

Are voters really so frightened by change?

According to the Wall Street Journal, in a recent Rasmussen survey, Florida voters were asked, “When it comes to the future of Medicare, which scares you more: President Obama’s health care law or Paul Ryan’s proposal?” By a margin of 48 to 41 percent, Floridians were more scared of Obama’s. Among those 65 and older, the margin was 54 to 34 percent.

It’s estimated that Medicare could go bankrupt within the next eight years. Why is it in so much trouble? The campaign talking heads on the left continue to state that Ryan’s plan will ruin Medicare, but the only candidate in the race who has gutted Medicare is actually Obama.