Campaigns Trade Medicare Barbs, Romney Praises Parts Of Health Reform Law

News outlets covered Mitt Romney's and Barack Obama's remarks on Medicare and the health law today.

The New York Times: Romney Has Conciliatory Remarks on Obama and Health Overhaul 
Mitt Romney said Sunday that he would retain elements of President Obama’s health care overhaul ... The remarks, made in an interview on the NBC News program “Meet The Press,” seemed to mark the emergence of a less openly partisan, more general-election-oriented Republican nominee (Barbaro and Rutenberg, 9/9).

The Washington Post: Mitt Romney Says He Wouldn't End Every Provision In Federal Health-Care Law
Among the provisions Romney portrayed positively: ensuring coverage options for people with pre-existing conditions. “One is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage. Two is to assure that the marketplace allows for individuals to have policies that cover their family up to whatever age they might like. I also want individuals to be able to buy insurance, health insurance, on their own as opposed to only being able to get it on a tax advantage basis through their company,” he said (Sullivan, 9/9).

Politico: Romney Says He Like Some Parts Of Obamacare
“I'm not getting rid of all of health care reform,” Romney said. “Of course, there are a number of things that I like in healthcare reform that I'm going to put in place.” Romney also invoked the Massachusetts health care law, noting that it also deals with coverage for pre-existing conditions and coverage for dependents (Kim, 9/9).

The Associated Press: Obama Vies For Health Care Edge In Florida  
[Romney] cited coverage for people with medical conditions and new insurance marketplaces. Romney's aides said that was consistent with his previous position that those who haven't had a gap in coverage shouldn't be denied coverage. But the comments brought renewed attention to the similarities between Obama's plan and the one Romney championed when he was Massachusetts governor (Kuhnhenn, 9/9).

The Wall Street Journal: Campaigns Spar Over Taxes, Budget
"Our problem in our country is not that we're not paying enough taxes," Mr. Romney said. "It's that we're spending too much money and the economy is not growing as it could and should." His running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, echoed those sentiments on ABC News's "This Week" as he advocated for Republican plans to eventually offer a private option for Medicare and increase the Social Security retirement age while scaling back benefits for high-income retirees. "Economic growth, spending cuts, entitlement reforms, that's the recipe that works," Mr. Ryan said (Murray and Meckler, 9/9).

The Hill: Obama: Romney Plan For Medicare Would Cost Seniors 'Thousands'
President Obama on Sunday turned his attention to Medicare, telling voters in Florida that Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan’s plans to reform the program would mean higher costs on seniors and more profits for insurance companies. Obama cited a new study from the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a liberal advocacy group with ties to the administration, claiming that the GOP ticket’s plans for Medicare mean “would mean as much as $16 billion to $26 billion in new profits for insurance companies.” ... the study was conducted by Harvard University Professor David Cutler (Mali, 9/9).

Fox News: Campaign Focus Turns To Medicare
President Obama on the offensive on Medicare campaigning in Melbourne, Florida. (President Obama) “Here’s the bottom line: their voucher program for Medicare would bankrupt Medicare, our plan strengthens Medicare” (Kealy 9/9/).

Reuters: Obama Courts Florida Voters Over Medicare, Space Policy
Romney's running mate, congressman Paul Ryan, proposed a plan two years ago that would transform Medicare into a program in which recipients would use vouchers to buy private insurance (Mason, 9/9).

USA Today: Obama: Romney's Medicare Reform To Cost Seniors Thousands
The Romney campaign blasted Obama for citing the study, which they say offers an inaccurate picture of the Romney ticket's plan ... A Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Ryan proposal suggested that because health care costs would grow faster than inflation, the plan would lead to seniors having to pay more of their health care costs. But the Romney campaign argues that the CBO analysis of the Romney-Ryan proposal ignores the potential benefits of competition between insurance providers (Madhani, 9/9).