When the GOP voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act 33 times, it received some coverage. When the Ryan - GOP wrote two house budgets that would end Medicare as we know it, it also received some coverage. When Mitt Romney endorsed Ryan's plan, that also received a bit of coverage.

But now that Romney has picked Paul Ryan as his running mate, this issue is going to be a LOT of coverage! Let's make sure we have our facts straight. Check this article out from ThinkProgress:

Ryan wants to end Medicare, replace it with a voucher system. Ryan’s latest budget transforms the existing version of Medicare, in which government provides seniors with a guaranteed benefit, into a “premium support” system. All future retirees would receive a government contribution to purchase insurance from an exchange of private plans or traditional fee-for-service Medicare. But since the premium support voucher does not keep up with increasing health care costs, the Congressional Budget Offices estimates that new beneficiaries could pay up to $1,200 more by 2030 and more than $5,900 more by 2050. A recent study also found that had the plan been implemented in 2009, 24 million beneficiares enrolled in the program would have paid higher premiums to maintain their choice of plan and doctors. Ryan would also raise Medicare’s age of eligibility to 67.

Ryan & Romney & other Republicans will be declaring that this is necessary to "fix" Medicare. They attack Obama and the Affordable Care Act by saying that the law "cuts ~$700 Billion from Medicare", ignoring the fact that these cuts are from finding waste, fraud & abuse; as well as ending handouts to insurance companies! "None of these reductions were financed by cuts to Medicare enrollees' eligibility or benefits; benefits were improved in the ACA"..."Except for insurers, all the affected groups (hospitals, health insurers, home health, and other providers) publicly supported the reductions to help finance the ACA's expansion in health insurance to about 32 million uninsured Americans." link

Here is the ironic part! Paul Ryan's GOP Budget, which repeals the Affordable Care Act, removes almost every part of the law except the changes to Medicare they attack! Even the GOP knows these benefits are better for Medicare.

As we move forward, Citizen Action will be coming up with new ways to make sure everyone knows how to talk about this. The main points: 

1. The Affordable Care Act saves $700 Billion in Medicare by removing waste/fraud & abuse, and ending handouts to insurance companies. Attacks against this are baseless.
2. The Ryan-GOP Budget ends Medicare-as-we-know-it by creating a voucher that does NOT keep up with inflation and raises the eligibility age.
3. The Ryan-GOP Budget repeals almost all of the Affordable Care Act EXCEPT those $700 Billion in savings to Medicare they attack Democrats for voting on!

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