New York Times:

A senior Democratic Congressional aide said, "This plan gives bipartisan political cover to Ryan and other Republicans against whom we have been waging a very successful political offensive."

Huff Post:

"We are concerned that Wyden-Ryan, like Congressman Ryan’s earlier proposal, would undermine, rather than strengthen, Medicare," said White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer. "The Wyden-Ryan scheme could, over time, cause the traditional Medicare program to “wither on the vine” because it would raise premiums, forcing many seniors to leave traditional Medicare and join private plans. And it would shift costs from the government to seniors. At the end of the day, this plan would end Medicare as we know it for millions of seniors. Wyden-Ryan is the wrong way to reform Medicare."

Ezra Klein:

The Wyden-Ryan reforms don’t enshrine any compromise at all. There’s no compromise on cost control. Quite the opposite, actually. The reforms would reduce Medicare’s bargaining power by diverting beneficiaries into private plans, which would in turn mean Medicare has less market power. Nor is there an access-for-cost trade. Paul Ryan and the Republicans continue to work to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and they have not proposed an alternative approach to achieving universal coverage. So it’s not clear to me exactly what Ron Wyden is getting in this trade. After speaking with him last night, I think the answer, put simply, is he’s not really getting anything. Ryan has climbed down from some of the more extreme elements of the GOP budget, but a compromise with an extreme-right proposal that will never pass is no compromise at all.

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First, I appreciate Wyden's effort to work cooperatively with someone on the opposite extreme. However, I don't believe this proposal will succeed in generating a plan that actually works. (The part about providing specialized coverage plans for particular needs disturbs me, as it would further divide groups, resulting in some individual being in small high risk pools with extremely high costs, carrying our current system to it's worst extreme.)

Second, anyone who wants to learn more about how to reform health care in order to truly achieve universal health care should go to Portland Community College Cascade Campus, Moriarty Hall, this Saturday (Dec 14) 1pm to 4pm, and hear about how Vermont adopted a plan for Single Payer Health Care.

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I interpret this as Wyden's capitulation to the privatization crowd.I would be inclined to find Ezra Klein's analysis well informed. Richard Trumka today called out Wyden's gambit accusing him of seeking ""praise from powerful people who care more about the appearance of bipartisanship"

My hope is that Wyden gets thoroughly marginalized with this so that other Dems who want to privatize Medicare (or Soc. Sec.) are otherwise dissuaded.

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Wow. Abandoning a single payer model for Medicare and adopting what is in essence a voucher program shifts all the risk of health care financing onto the backs of senior citizens. I will be waiting for a Fox News editorial explaining why this is a good idea, because for the moment I can't comprehend what Wyden is trying to accomplish.

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Wyden's betrayal gets universal thumbs down from the President and Dems in Congress. In contrast Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are giving great praise to Wyden's plan. John Boehner " a step in the right direction.) I think Wyden has forgotten who he is and who elected him.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/more-backlash-for-wyden-than-for-ryan-on-controversial-medicare-plan.php?ref=fpblg

Two White House spokesmen — Jay Carney and Dan Pfeiffer — rejected the plan outright. Carney said the plan would “end Medicare as we know it.”

Leaving Wyden’s name out of it, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said, “[Paul] Ryan’s latest Medicare plan is another example of GOP’s desire for Medicare, as Gingrich described, to “wither on the vine.”

Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) — “despite Wyden’s claims otherwise, the Wyden-Ryan plan ends Medicare as we know it, plain and simple.” nuff said..

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Wyden seems to have an obsession with "bipartisanship." In my opinion, Oregon can do better. He should have a primary challenge in 2016.

Here's what I would like to ask Senator Wyden: Why do you continue to allow the Republicons to implement minority rule in the Senate? Being in control, they can of course change the Senate rules to end the abuse of the filibuster but they continue to permit the R's to obstruct democracy and carry out the 1% agenda.

Many may remember when Democrats were abusing the filibuster back in Bush's first term...the Republicans told them they would change the rules if they continued. Democrats should have done this in 2008. Instead they sit back and tell us it's the Republicn's fault......that they just don't have the 60 votes.

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Wyden is going the opposite direction from what he should be doing; expanding Medicare by allowing younger, healthier people into the risk pool.

Instead, he is letting the wealthier, healthier seniors opt out of Medicare and subsidizing the health insurance companies that have bought and paid for Congress.

Bad, bad move. I'm being ripped off by Kaiser, and counting down the 23 1/2 years until I become eligible for Medicare; I imagine it will be gone or a dessicated husk by then, and I'll have the privilege of turning most of my Social Security check over to a private insurer, just as I do now.

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"Wyden is going the opposite direction from what he should be doing; expanding Medicare by allowing younger, healthier people into the risk pool."

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Exactly.. this is a no-brainer policy direction for reducing the costs of Medicare. The fact that Wyden and those like him are not pursuing this direction makes me utterly suspicious about their motives and their values. The U.S. senate is the closest thing we have to a privileged aristocracy in this country, and the longer they spend there, the more Wyden and people like him end up being a captive of the corporate money and privilege coming their way. I can only conclude he's 'all in' for the corporate insurers and is doing everything possible to prop them up and defeat a viable single payer public option. Anyone who wants to sign on to the Ryan plan has no clue or simply doesn't care about the life that most seniors and disabled people are living and their health care needs and financial limitations. Wyden will never face those limitations himself.

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Press Release from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka slams the Ryan-Wyden proposal. Here's a little chunk of the statement.

"The Ryan-Wyden plan betrays a fundamental misdiagnosis of the problem with health care cost growth. We agree that if America fails to bring health care cost growth under control, health care costs will eventually bankrupt families, private businesses, state governments, and the federal government.

It is the height of irony that the Ryan-Wyden plan destabilizes the most effective tool we have to control health care cost growth, which is Medicare.

Under Ryan-Wyden, private for-profit insurance companies will cherry pick the healthiest seniors and stick Medicare with sicker and more costly seniors, driving up costs for Medicare, fragmenting and destabilizing the Medicare risk pool, leaving traditional Medicare to wither on the vine.

In the end, the answer to the problem of health care cost growth is for more people to use Medicare, not fewer. The Ryan-Wyden zombie proposal takes us in exactly the wrong direction."

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This is a load of crap. Single-payer (which our current Medicare represents in our country) is by far the least expensive way to deliver healthcare. And it would be even less expensive except for the retail-price provision for Rx in Medicare Part D (which Wyden also supported). Some may say that Wyden has won a victory over Ryan; what's really going on is that both of them get what they want: that is to undermine our single-payer example.

Ron Wyden (R-NY, Likud-Israel).

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To Mr. Kari Chisolm: you are a single-payer advocate; how, then, can you possibly view this in a positive light? Isn't policy more important than whether or not GOP and (alleged) Dems can find a way to get along?

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Wyden was terrible during the health care debate, cutting the legs out from each progressive proposal.

He needs to spend more time with Bernie Sanders and learn to say the only words that count: Single Payer.

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Just watching the GOP debate, and both Newt and Mitt were tripping over themselves to congratulate Wyden and Ryan. They love the plan.

My unease grows.

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