Ryan’s Proposal Would Shrink Medicare’s Doctor Pool

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The federal budget proposed byRepresentative Paul Ryan, the Republican vice-presidentialnominee, extols the benefits of “promoting true choice” forMedicare beneficiaries. In truth, though, the Ryan plan wouldsubstantially reduce choice for many people on Medicare -- bycutting them off from their current doctors.

Doctors see Medicare patients, despite the relatively lowpayments they receive for doing so, partly because Medicarerepresents such a large share of the health-care market. If asubstantial number of beneficiaries moved out of Medicare andinto private plans, as Ryan proposes, doctors would have muchless incentive to see Medicare patients. And the elderly whowant to remain in traditional Medicare would risk beingstranded.