Senior citizens have been, as a whole, a reliable voting block for the Democratic party. I have to wonder why, considering how little regard they have for them. Rep. Paul Ryan's proposed Medicare plan doesn't affect seniors currently on Medicare at all. In fact it wouldn't affect anyone over the age of 55. But that hasn't stopped the Dems from frightening seniors with horror stories of how the GOP wants to change their Medicare health coverage. You've seen the Dems TV ad showing grandma being pushed off a cliff by a not-to-dissimilar Paul Ryan character. Classy ad. It's one thing to have a passionate debate - it's quite another to deliberately distort facts in an effort to scare your constituents. That serves no one.
Medicare is in serious trouble. By comparison, Social Security is a cash fountain. Independent sources have Medicare going flat broke on 10 years. That ain't that far off kiddies. Tinkering around the edges wont cure what ails this program. It's way past time for a serious discussion as to what Medicare will evolve into within the next decade and beyond. Paul Ryan's plan calls for what essentially is a voucher program. The government issues seniors a check and allows them to purchase coverage by whatever insurance company they like. Unlike Medicare, you will have "choice". Most seniors currently have a secondary insurance plan. Medicare covers 80% of their costs while the secondary picks up the balance. The current cost of Medicare to a senior is about $100.00 a month. A bargain when you consider the secondary insurance can charge $175.00 or more just to pick up the remaining 20%. For a $100.00 a month premium, the bulk of your healthcare needs are met at a time when you are most likely to use it and with great frequency. Is it any wonder why the program is in such trouble?
Currently, the Medicare program has unfunded liabilities near 30 trillion dollars. The program is unsustainable. That's a fact no matter what your party affiliation. Future senior healthcare recipients will have two choices. A higher cost for good benefits. Or lower costs for virtually no benefits - witness Medicaid. These are the choices that 40 years of unsustainable promises has left us. I work in healthcare. 20 years ago an Ophthalmologist would collect about $1200.00 for a cataract surgery. Today Medicare pays nearly half that amount. Yet the doctor's staffing, malpractice insurance, etc. have not gone down 50%. Cataract surgery is the number one surgery performed in America today. As baby boomers age, it will still be the number one surgery but by a far greater percentage. Based upon past history - a doctor can expect to be paid about $250.00 by the time I'm ready. I pay more than that for a brake job. Many Ophthalmologists have decided to give up performing cataract surgery and who can blame them. Some doctors are refusing to participate with Medicare. It's just not financially feasible. So much for the benefits of government run healthcare. And make no mistake - that's what Medicare is.
Medicare is in serious trouble. By comparison, Social Security is a cash fountain. Independent sources have Medicare going flat broke on 10 years. That ain't that far off kiddies. Tinkering around the edges wont cure what ails this program. It's way past time for a serious discussion as to what Medicare will evolve into within the next decade and beyond. Paul Ryan's plan calls for what essentially is a voucher program. The government issues seniors a check and allows them to purchase coverage by whatever insurance company they like. Unlike Medicare, you will have "choice". Most seniors currently have a secondary insurance plan. Medicare covers 80% of their costs while the secondary picks up the balance. The current cost of Medicare to a senior is about $100.00 a month. A bargain when you consider the secondary insurance can charge $175.00 or more just to pick up the remaining 20%. For a $100.00 a month premium, the bulk of your healthcare needs are met at a time when you are most likely to use it and with great frequency. Is it any wonder why the program is in such trouble?
Currently, the Medicare program has unfunded liabilities near 30 trillion dollars. The program is unsustainable. That's a fact no matter what your party affiliation. Future senior healthcare recipients will have two choices. A higher cost for good benefits. Or lower costs for virtually no benefits - witness Medicaid. These are the choices that 40 years of unsustainable promises has left us. I work in healthcare. 20 years ago an Ophthalmologist would collect about $1200.00 for a cataract surgery. Today Medicare pays nearly half that amount. Yet the doctor's staffing, malpractice insurance, etc. have not gone down 50%. Cataract surgery is the number one surgery performed in America today. As baby boomers age, it will still be the number one surgery but by a far greater percentage. Based upon past history - a doctor can expect to be paid about $250.00 by the time I'm ready. I pay more than that for a brake job. Many Ophthalmologists have decided to give up performing cataract surgery and who can blame them. Some doctors are refusing to participate with Medicare. It's just not financially feasible. So much for the benefits of government run healthcare. And make no mistake - that's what Medicare is.
To keep costs contained, medical surgeries and procedures will be denied. But not by the evil insurance companies - but by the new government Affordable Healthcare program. For all the scare tactics used such as how insurance companies will deny you a procedure - government insurance, Medicare denies benefits at a higher ratio. That's something you'll never hear on the 6:00 news.
In the end, Paul Ryan's plan wont pass the Senate. And if it did, The President wouldn't sign it so you can forget about it. But eventually some plan will have to be designed, accepted and implemented to save the program. It wont look the same as our parent's Medicare. It will have to evolve or cease to exist at all. Medicare as it was enacted in 1965 was always unsustainable. But politicians can do the math and many figured they'd be long gone by the time this impending disaster arrived - leaving someone else to clean up the mess.
In the end, Paul Ryan's plan wont pass the Senate. And if it did, The President wouldn't sign it so you can forget about it. But eventually some plan will have to be designed, accepted and implemented to save the program. It wont look the same as our parent's Medicare. It will have to evolve or cease to exist at all. Medicare as it was enacted in 1965 was always unsustainable. But politicians can do the math and many figured they'd be long gone by the time this impending disaster arrived - leaving someone else to clean up the mess.
Till now, Democrats have been getting away with calling any Republican Medicare restructuring efforts, "barbaric" and "draconian". But eventually, people will demand to see the Democratic plan. And trashing your opponent without producing a plan of your own is no plan at all. I'm certain there's a compromise out there that will provide for future seniors (me) and do it in a financially solvent way. I just don't know it it will actually happen soon enough before the wheels come off the whole damn thing. And if it does, remember - it happened in part because we put so much trust in elected officials who told us what we wanted to hear - not what we needed to hear.
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