The White House's Framework for a Better Tomorrow: Explained

So, here's what we have today: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/04/13/fact-sheet-presidents-framework-shared-prosperity-and-shared-fiscal-resp . Now, if the link button were working properly or I knew HTML, that link would say:

FACT SHEET: The President's Framework for Shared Prosperity and Shared Fiscal Responsibility

Well, you get the idea.

Now, this basically boils down to a way for the country to slim down its deficit by about $4 trillion "in 12 years or less." (Note: Funny thing is, if we keep on going the way we have been since September of '07, we'll rack up $4 trillion in debt in about 3 years, according to the U.S. National Debt Clock -- http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/.)

Anyways, once you sift through all the other stuff that doesn't talk about health care, here's what you end up with: 

1. The President refuses to let seniors and "the vulnerable" carry the weight of any huge health care change. If you fall into this category, then, instead of making you pay for increasingly more expensive health care,  the President plans to save the country money by increasing the quality of health care, which should lower the cost of Medicare by $50 billion in the next decade. Also, Medicaid will become "more flexible, efficient and accountable," allowing a savings of at least $100 billion. And here's one to rejoice about: the President plans to "reduce Medicare's excessive spending on prescription drugs and lower drug premiums for beneficiaries without shifting costs to seniors or privatizing Medicare. Also, they plan to bend the cost curve, which should save about a trillion over the next decade, but this shouldn't effect you as much as it will the deficit.

2. Social Security gets brought up shortly after that, but the only plan is to talk about it, through bipartisan efforts, more "sooner than later." But he does say that the program should be strengthened without being privatized, protecting beneficiaries and improving retirement security, and "not slashing benefits for future generations." 

3. The President also makes it known that this plan is different from "the House Republican plan that would increase seniors’ health costs by $6,400 annually starting in 2022, raise health insurance premiums for middle-class Americans and small businesses, cut Federal Medicaid spending by one-third by the end of the decade, and increase the number of uninsured by 50 million." 

....And then there's a whole lot more technical jargon with numbers and letters that stand for agencies and talk about how it effects the deficit, but nothing on how it effects you, which basically boils down to the stuff above (i.e. no privatization of Medicare or Medicaid, lowering Medicare costs without making you pay for it, and being different from the House Republican plan that, quite frankly, sounds a bit scary if you're a senior, on Medicaid, own or work for a small business, or are part of the middle class).

Well, that's everything pertinent to you and health care! If you have any questions on this post or something I didn't talk about in the framework, ask! For now, this is Matt -- signing off.