The disabled may be hurt most by Paul Ryan's Medicare plan

Medicare plan by Paul Ryan, the GOP vice presidential candidate, would result in a greater share of costs shifting to the elderly and the disabled, critics say.

David Lazarus, LA Times
3:53 AM PDT, August 21, 2012

Amid all the chatter about whether Paul D. Ryan's proposed changes would, as Democrats say, "end Medicare as we know it," one group has been largely overlooked: disabled people.

The vast majority of Medicare's roughly 48 million beneficiaries are seniors over the age of 65. But about 8 million are disabled people of all ages. The federal program was expanded in 1972 to include those with permanent disabilities.

Many seniors are rightly concerned that Ryan, the conservative congressman tapped by Mitt Romney as his vice presidential running mate, has proposed a plan that could result in higher out-of-pocket expenses for Medicare coverage.

But disabled people could be in for an even bigger shock.

(More here.)