Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius joined Democratic Senators on Capitol Hill this afternoon to announce a Democratic alternative to the Paul Ryan/GOP plan to save Medicare. First, they propose that Congress not pass the Ryan budget into law (which was never going to happen anyway).
And that’s it.
Indeed, Sebelius defended the status quo on Medicare, saying that Democrats “have already begun [to] improve Medicare,” and citing her department’s tireless efforts to implement “extensive reforms” and eliminate “fraud and abuse” as she works to implement Obama’s health-care law passed by Congress last year.
As House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) recently told the Washington Post: “We have a plan. It’s called Medicare.”
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D., W.Va.) said that by passing the health-care reform law — a “noble work” — Democrats had “solved virtually all problems.”
“It’s good plan,” he said. “Stick with the plan.”
So it’s official, the Democratic “plan” for Medicare will look like this.