Over the past several years, I have written articles and letters that said the current Speaker of the House was proposing to phase out Medicare and replace it with private insurance with subsidies to help seniors afford private coverage.

Paul Ryan’s proposal would virtually change Medicare as we have known it into a form of Obamacare.

I warned that Ryan’s Plan would not guarantee first class coverage or affordability.

Instead it would offer subsidized assistance instead of “no rejection” coverage.

Ryan says his plan provides “premium price support.”

One author says this term is fancy wonk-speak for “vouchers that would be used to buy private insurance but would not keep up with the cost of inflation, thereby saddling seniors with enormous additional health care expenses out of their own pockets.”

Up until now, that proposal had no chance of being enacted into law because it faced a veto proof Presidential veto.

But now that the House, the Senate and the White House will be in Republican hands, and President Elect Trump has made his two anti-Medicare appointments to Health and Human Services and to the Office of Management and Budget, Speaker Ryan is confident that his plan to end Medicare will be signed into law.

People often say: “Elections have consequences. “ Well, this past election of a Republican President, a Republican-led House and Senate could very well have this consequence: The death of the Medicare Program, if not its name.

Tim Mannello

Williamsport

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