According to Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, President Obama is taking $716 billion away from Medicare and giving it to Obamacare. No he’s not. We attempt to set the record straight. The crux of the matter has to do with what’s called Medicare Advantage which is a privatized version of Medicare. Neither side will use the word privatization, but in a nutshell that’s what this issue is all about. That $716 billion represents a pushback by the Obama administration against the forces of privatization which have been at work against government run Medicare for years.
In 1997 our old friend, Newt Gingrich, established the privatization camel’s nose under the tent of traditional Medicare with the Balanced Budget Act which included a provision for something called Medicare+Choice, the precursor to Medicare Advantage. This act let private health care companies compete with traditional government run Medicare. This was step 1 in the privatization of Medicare.