MILWAUKEE (WTAQ) - Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tommy Thompson has changed his mind about wanting to make future retirees wait longer to receive Medicare health benefits – and giving less of those benefits to the rich.

Last month, Thompson’s campaign issued a statement that the former governor was open to both ideas. But now, Thompson tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel those are no longer his positions – and he recently offered a different plan on Medicare.

Thompson, who was the nation’s health secretary for four years under George W. Bush, is in a tight race with U.S. House Democrat Tammy Baldwin for the Senate seat that’s being given up by retiring Democrat Herb Kohl.