With Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney selecting Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate this weekend, the issue of Medicare reform is likely to be a prominent campaign issue. Duke professor Don Taylor authored the book "Balancing the Budget is a Progressive Priority" (Springer, 2012), which, among other things, takes a detailed look at reforming health care, including Medicare and Medicaid. On Monday, he blogged about Rep. Ryan and his possible influence on the Medicare debate -- 
http://donaldhtaylorjr.wordpress.com/2012/08/13/rep-ryan-as-vp-nominee-and-health-policy/

Don Taylor
Associate professor of public policy studies, Duke University.
don.taylor@duke.edu
http://fds.duke.edu/db/Sanford/dtaylor
Video: http://ondemand.duke.edu/video/32761/election-2012-the-health-care-

Taylor conducts research on aging and comparative health systems, including Medicare, long-term care and health policy. He blogs about health care policy at http://donaldhtaylorjr.wordpress.com. Taylor's op-ed in The (Raleigh) News & Observer on a health care setup both sides could live with can be found at http://tinyurl.com/6w5sjrp.

Quote from blog:
"Rep. Ryan has focused a good deal on health policy during his career as a legislator. However, he has not used his power as chair of the budget committee in the House of Representatives to push ahead into the nitty gritty of passing health reform legislation.

"...If Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan win, then I assume that means Republicans will keep the House and retake the Senate. I fully expect under those circumstances that the ACA (Affordable Care Act) will be repealed. Lots of my friends are worried about what the Republicans will then put in place of the ACA. I am actually more worried that they would do what they have done the past 19 months in the House on replace: nothing."