So maybe you can take care of me

I've been doing some retirement planning this week, and I'm not too far away from signing up for Medicare. I sure hope they have some good-looking nurses.

It is discomforting to absorb the impressions in the media -- President Obama has cut $716 billion from the program; Republican Veep nominee wants to "end Medicare as we know it."

I'm less concerned with how my retirement portfolio is doing than where I'll get healthcare. (Note to financial advisor: ignore this.)

So which is which? You should care, too, because you don't want me knocking on your door in a few years and asking for help with a catheter.

(That is just disgusting. I can't believe you said that.)

It looks as though it's correct that Obama is cutting funds to Medicare to fund Obamacare. The Washington Post, which no one will accuse of having a Republican bias, confirms it. The article's headline: "Romney’s right: Obamacare cuts Medicare by $716 billion. Here’s how."

And it shows where the cuts will come from in this chart.

That's not encouraging. Moreover, a bureaucratic panel of 15 men and women will enforce a spending cap by decreeing how medicine should be practiced and how doctors and hospitals are organized. Did anybody say "Death Panel?" How about "Catheter Committee?"

So what do Romney and Ryan have in mind? I use as sources FactCheck.org and the Kaiser Family Foundation for this:

• For seniors who are now in Medicare, nothing changes. They can stay with the traditional program as it is.
• Beginning in 2023, 65-year-olds would have their choice of insurance plans — private and traditional — on a new Medicare exchange. A premium-support payment, like a subsidy, would be sent to the plan of their choice.
• If the chosen plan costs more than the premium-support, the senior would pay the difference.
• The Medicare eligibility age would be slowly raised to 67 by 2034.
• All plans on the Medicare exchange would offer a base level of benefits, and they would be regulated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
• The premium-support payments would be tied to the second-cheapest plan, which can’t grow more than gross domestic product plus 0.5 percentage points. If the cost does grow faster, Congress would be required to step in and take some action to keep costs down.

I know that if Medicare "as we know it" isn't changed, it's going to collapse on top of my head, pretty nurses and all.

I'll take my chances with Romney and Ryan.