To the editor:

President Bush tried privatizing Social Security, and the idea failed miserably. Citizens did not want their savings subjected to the vagaries of the market.

Now comes the Ryan-Romney Medicare proposal which would end Medicare as we know it, providing vouchers to enable Americans to buy insurance on the open market. That’s not working now, but the candidates persist in pursuing this scheme to allow private, for-profit firms to bid for voucher dollars.  The result will be ever-higher premiums as administrative costs are much higher than Medicare and VA government plans. As health care costs continue to escalate, more and more citizens will be unable to have insurance.

Also, nothing is said about preserving what we already have in the Affordable Care Act, coverage for pre-existing conditions, preventive health care visits, allowing children to be on their parents’ policies until age 26 and eliminating the doughnut hole in the prescription D policies which are costly to some seniors.

Hopefully each side will be able to compromise to preserve much-needed health care that we seniors enjoy in our present Medicare system. Let’s start with revisiting the Simpson-Bowle plan, rejected by both parties, which had the compromises necessary to preserve Medicare for future generations. It should be noted that, according to Bloomberg news writer Heidi Przybyla, Rep. Ryan played a key role in defeating this courageous bipartisan plan. We can’t afford such partisanship in the future.