Thursday night’s vice presidential debate was everything we expected — Joe Biden was prepared and fired up (although maybe a little too much) and Paul Ryan was calm and rehearsed (although, again, maybe a little too much).
Healthcare topics may not have captured much time during the debate, but the brief segment devoted to Medicare sparked the exchange of some heated remarks between the two.
Watch the video here, or check out the 10 Twitter reactions below that sum up what went down.
I’m actually agreeing somewhat with Ryan here, we need to reform and eventually reshape Medicare for out generation #apush
— David Scherer (@Dastardly_David) October 12, 2012
Ryan admits some will get less Medicare, making it a graduated program based on income & supposed economic need. That’s a benefit decrease!
— Garry S. Shay (@IrishWarriorDem) October 12, 2012
Wait. The Ryans are wealthy. Why did they get Medicare? Aren’t they part of the problem?
— Bill Campbell (@bcampbellauthor) October 12, 2012
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Ryan on Medicare: “They’re trying to scare you by saying it’s a voucher.” Biden: “It’s a voucher.”
— Doyle McManus (@DoyleMcManus) October 12, 2012
Paul Ryan has the audacity to talk about $716 billion in Medicare savings that he included in his own budget plan. Takes a lot of brass.
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) October 12, 2012
Biden’s best line: “Their ideas are old and their ideas are bad, and they eliminate the guarantee of Medicare.”
— George Zornick (@gzornick) October 12, 2012
Zinger! Paul Ryan: “They got caught with their hand in the cookie jar turning Medicare into a piggy bank for ObamaCare.”
— Matt Viser (@mviser) October 12, 2012
Biden sez AMA supported #Medicare $ cut. AMA did, but #doctors DON’T. Less than 15% of docs even belong to AMA anymore.
— DocPatientMedAssn (@docsandpatients) October 12, 2012
Ryan’s premium support-rates grow more slowly than health care costs. Thus: not full coverage. **thank god Biden finally said it. #vpdebate
— joy meads (@capnjoy) October 12, 2012
Moderator to Biden: “Why not slowly raise the age for Medicare as Ryan is suggesting?” Biden doesn’t answer her question.
— Catherine Jaime (@cmmjaime) October 12, 2012
More reading:
- USA Today readers weigh in on how they would fix Medicare.
- The Kaiser Family Foundation puts recent proposals to transform Medicare into a premium support program side-by-side.
- Politifact checks the facts on some politicians’ statements about Medicare.
- An explanation of the Independent Medical Advisory Board (mentioned by Ryan).
