Despite Criticism Of Paul Ryan, Gingrich Proposed Nearly Identical Plan In 1995

During an appearance on Meet the Press yesterday, 2012 presidential candidate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) called Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) proposal to transform Medicare into a “premium support” system for future retirees “too big a jump” and suggested that the reform was tantamount to “right-wing social engineering.”

The comments come just weeks after Gingrich told Time’s Jay Newton-Small that Ryan was a “brave” “man of ideas”:

I asked if he would advocate replacing it with Paul Ryan’s plan.
The former speaker sang Ryan’s praises for being a “brave” “man of ideas,” like Gingrich himself.
“But would you have voted for Ryan’s plan?” I pressed.
“Sure,” Gingrich replied.

Under the Ryan proposal — which almost every Republican in the House supported — seniors retiring in 2022 would have to purchase coverage from an exchange of private plans with a “premium support” of approximately $8,000 and would no longer be able to enroll in traditional fee-for-service Medicare.

In fact, Gingrich proposed a very similar plan in 1995, when Republicans sought to eliminate $270 billion dollars from Medicare over seven years. Seniors would have received a voucher for the value of the annual average benefits and bought insurance from a private insurance company — or traditional Medicare. The Hartford Courant described the proposal as “the most sweeping change in Medicare’s 30-year history,” saying that it would “end Medicare’s guarantee of providing a defined set of benefits.” “Instead, the government would guarantee a certain dollar amount and beneficiaries would be on their own to find the best bargain available,” the paper explained in July 1995. Gingrich himself described the reform as a “voucher“:

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) promised Friday that congressional Republicans would devote all future savings from Medicare to assure the solvency of the imperiled health care program rather than to balance the federal budget.
And he challenged President Clinton to offer proposals “to save Medicare for a generation.”
Gingrich predicted that Congress would undertake a major reform of Medicare, offering other options to the current fee-for-service system.One alternative would be a voucher program, in which beneficiaries would choose among several competing private health plans. However, he pledged that “anyone who wants to” would be permitted to stay in the present system, which allows unrestricted choice of doctors and hospitals.

Such proposals have been disavowed by Henry Aaron, the academic who first coined and developed the term “premium support” — the concept upon which both the Gingrich and Ryan proposals are based. Aaron argues that the “gains from being able to choose among competing insurance plans have been exaggerated” and that the Affordable Care Act may push Medicare to use its leverage to effect change in the way health care is delivered.

UPDATEThe Weekly Standard's John McCormack catalogs some of Gingrich's other flip-flops.

UPDATEVerum Serum finds a quote from Gingrich in 2000 at the American Enterprise Institute discussing his support for Medicare and Medicaid vouchers.

UPDATEThis morning, Pat Buchanan said Gingrich is "out on the left-wing of the Republican Party." Watch it:

UPDATEResponding to Gingrich, Paul Ryan said today, "With allies like that, who needs the left?"