Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney pulled out his whiteboard Thursday to illustrate his proposals for the government health care plan for the elderly, dpa reported.
The programme known as Medicare has dominated campaign rhetoric since Romney named Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan his vice presidential candidate last week because of a budget plan put forward by Ryan that would reform the programme.
In a press conference in South Carolina, Romney wrote out differences between his plan and Obama's on a whiteboard for reporters, claiming he would institute no changes to the programme for those who are now 55 years old and older, while making it "solvent" for future generations.
He claimed Obama had already set in place cuts of 716 billion dollars to the programme as part of his broader health care reforms and that some 4 million people would lose coverage.
"The differences in our Medicare perspective coud not be more harsh and more dramatic," Romney said.
Obama has had sharp words for Romney for a plan that would institute vouchers to purchase private health insurance that he claims would increase costs to senior citizens.
"My plan has extended Medicare by nearly a decade. Their plan ends Medicare as we know it," he said at a campaign stop in Iowa Wednesday.
The Obama administration notes the cuts are savings that will come from cutting waste and not from benefits.
"The savings he achieved through the Affordable Care Act have extended the life of the Medicare program by eight years, and they come not from Medicare beneficiaries, not from benefits but from providers and insurance companies through savings in waste and fraud," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.