Healthcare

Chart of the Day

via Kevin Drum

Romney doesn't want to spend as much on Medicaid as Obama does. In fact, he wants to take a chainsaw to it. Aaron Carroll and Austin Frakt took a look at the Romney and Obama plans in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week, and the chart above shows their conclusions. On Medicare, the two candidates want to spend roughly similar amounts of money. On Medicaid, Romney wants to spend way, way less. And not just on poor people. As Jon Cohn points out, cuts of this size will have a huge impact on "dual eligibles," elderly patients who rely on Medicaid to pay their nursing home bills.

And another Romney-Ryan denial is struck down, this time by the American Medical Association.

The Obama campaign has been running ads in swing states, including here in Ohio, pointing out that Romney's budget plan would cut spending on nursing homes.