This is a Cato special podcast. I'm Caleb Brown. The debate over reforming U.S.

health care doesn't need to be so narrow. So says U.S. Representative Paul Ryan.

Ryan gave the keynote address at the Cato Institute's conference on health care reform

held June 17, 2009. This is the second part of his comments.

Let's not continue to segregate poor people from the rest of society when it comes to

health care.

Let's not have those Medicaid patients

come into the clinic and the doctor's office in the hospital

with poor persons stamped to the forehead

where they're pushed back to the side of the line.

You got to remember, and I don't know where each of of you come from but where I come from most doctors won't take Medicaid patients

It underpays them they don't want it and so you already have rationing occurring they're already getting in many instances second-class health care. So we're

saying integrate them in with everybody else. voucher out Medicaid, a cash

benefit for Medicaid families, $5,000 on a card to go in addition to this tax credit.

So a Medicaid family under the poverty line,

about $11,000, $10,700 to be specific.

And then for people up to double the poverty line,

that cash benefit phases from 5,000 down to $2,500.

And integrate them into the system.

Now insurance, I'll go quickly over to this.

We're saying, by the way, these Medicaid reforms save about a trillion dollars, and that helps

us pay for the kinds of things that we're doing to make sure that the money that go to

...