U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, the House budget chairman, is selling a plan to slash Medicaid costs as a boon to governors, who would receive a block grant for Medicaid with few strings attached. Ryan also would make Medicare voluntary and more expensive, raising the prospect of unininsured 80-year-olds.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is not buying.
“I think it would be an absolute disaster for the United States,” Malloy said today in response to a question at a press conference. “It is fostered by people who want to roll back Medicaid and Medicare. We now know the Republican agenda is to destroy Medicare and Medicaid. And this is simply a tool they would use to do that.”