by: Mark Miller

Mitt Romney's selection of U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate guarantees a fierce debate about the future of Medicare during the presidential campaign this fall.

Ryan is the author of several plans to slash the cost of Medicare, the U.S. health insurance program for the elderly and disabled. He would do that by transforming it into a voucher program that would provide seniors a fixed annual benefit, so-called premium support. That plan is overwhelmingly unpopular among all Americans, and especially seniors, because it would more than double their current out-of-pocket Medicare costs over the coming decade.

The debate already is generating plenty of claims and counter-claims about what is and is not working - often based on misinformation about how Medicare actually functions today. So let's take a look at the six biggest myths about Medicare, along with the facts.

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