Republican presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich is lauding the new Ryan-Wyden bipartisan Medicare reform plan, calling it an “effort to come to grips with one of the major entitlement challenges we face.”

The plan, proposed by Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, would retain traditional Medicare as an option for new retirees when it goes into effect in 2022, while private insurance would be able to compete with the government-run plan, CBS News reports.

Appearing on Iowa Public Television on Thursday morning, Gingrich said: “To have that bill introduced and have them publicly together talking about this is really a healthy - maybe it's the beginning of breaking up the logjam, and starting to get Democrats and Republicans to talk to each other, and I think that Paul Ryan and Ron Wyden deserve some real credit.

“This is a very courageous thing for each of them to do, to reach out, come together, and offer a genuinely bipartisan bill given the atmosphere you have in Washington.”

Gingrich had criticized a previous plan offered by Rep. Ryan to turn Medicare into a voucher-like program.

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