Medicare update: Hell hath no fury like a senior scorned

As the presidential election season heats up, Republicans who rode into Congress on the shoulders of angry seniors in the midterm elections may soon be stomped on by those same seniors. The GOP plan to restructure Medicare has riled the powerful voting block, who may stampede in the opposite direction in 2012.

The Medicare revolt is most likely to occur in states with a large proportion of older Americans such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and New Mexico. Experts say the senior vote in these swing states may make the difference in the presidential election.

According to aging and society expert Bob Binstock, of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, the 2010 elections were the first time people over 65 voted down the line according to demographical interests, reports Reuters.

The worry over the health reform law that sent many older voters running into the arms of the GOP has now ricocheted back toward the Democrats. Many seniors feel the plan introduced by Representative Paul Ryan to replace Medicare with a voucher program would be far worse for them than Obama’s reform law.