Republican Presidential Candidates Discuss GOP Medicare Overhaul Plan
During campaign events in Iowa, Republican presidential candidates Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney discussed House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget blueprint, the AP/San Diego Union-Tribune reports (Beaumont, AP/San Diego Union-Tribune, 5/27).
Pawlenty previously acknowledged that his own plan would resemble the Ryan proposal (Shear, "The Caucus," New York Times, 5/26).
On Monday, Pawlenty revealed more details regarding his plan. He said his Medicare proposal would change the way providers are reimbursed to include performance pay, which rewards quality care. "We will begin to move providers from getting paid not just for the volume of procedures they crank out, but whether people are actually getting healthier and getting better" Pawlenty said (Krogstad, Des Moines Register, 5/30).
Still, Pawlenty has said that he would sign Ryan's Medicare reform proposal if it were the only plan that came to him (Gardner, Washington Post, 5/26).
Meanwhile, Romney said he supports the goals of the GOP budget proposal, but he plans to outline a new proposal to reduce spending and cut the federal deficit.
According to the AP/Union-Tribune, Romney declined to answer whether he would sign the Ryan plan if he were president. He said, "That's the kind of speculation that is getting the cart ahead of the horse" (AP/San Diego Union-Tribune, 5/27).
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