Sen. Wyden: Romney healthcare plan undermines Medicare reform

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) continues to distance himself from the Romney campaign's Medicare plan, which is based on a proposal he wrote with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

Romney's Medicare plan is essentially the same as the proposal that Ryan and Wyden introduced earlier this year — and Romney has often cited Wyden's involvement to argue that his plan has bipartisan support.

But Wyden, already facing criticism from his own party for working with Ryan, said the Romney-Ryan plan is a far cry from what he endorsed.

"The Romney approach completely pulls the rug out from under the poorest and most vulnerable seniors," Wyden said in an interview with Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein.

The Ryan-Wyden proposal could convert Medicare into a "premium support" model, in which seniors could choose between traditional Medicare or a subsidy to buy private insurance.

Wyden said premium support still has merit, but that it won't work alongside Romney and Ryan's plan to repeal President Obama's healthcare law and dramatically restructure the Medicaid program.

"In the white paper, protections for so-called dual eligibles, the people in both Medicare and Medicaid, are bulletproof," Wyden said. "There’s no way to throw them under the bus. Gov. Romney says he’d block grant the Medicaid program and push those cuts onto the people, which would do enormous harm to those people whose protection was at the center of the white paper."

Wyden also told Klein that the Affordable Care Act includes important Medicare reforms.

"To lay a foundation for putting together a program to protect the guarantee and protect the budget, you need the changes the Affordable Care Act makes to Medicare, like bundled payments and moving the system towards pay-for-quality. Without it, you can’t move to premium support," the senator said.

The Romney campaign defended its platform against Wyden's criticism.

"Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have always been fully committed to repealing Obamacare, ending President Obama’s $716 billion raid on Medicare, and tackling the serious fiscal challenges our country faces," Policy Director Lanhee Chen said in a statement. "A Romney-Ryan Administration will restore the funding to Medicare, ensure that no changes are made to the program for those 55 or older, and implement the reforms that they have proposed to strengthen it for future generations."

— This post was updated at 5:50 p.m.

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