It is heartening to see that seniors medical care means something to the nation as a whole. After the Republican defeat in the very conservative district in New York on Tuesday maybe they will get the message. Why do so many politicians, almost all of them of the same party, think that the solution to Medicare is to end it and put seniors out on their own to battle for healthcare?
It is beyond my comprehension as to why no one is talking about controlling the costs of medical care in this country instead of just reducing benefits! The rest of the industrial world spends less than half of what we do for medical care and most live longer than we do. Surely there is something we can learn from them? Why isn’t anyone looking to their examples to find solutions to our current Medicare problems? I’m sure a big part of the reason for this is that they don’t like the solution that the rest of the world has discovered.
Everyone who has costs well below ours is on a single payer system. Of course there is one party in Congress who call this SOCIALISM and want nothing to do with it for solely that reason. Socialism abounds in many other parts of our country so why are some so resistant to accept it in our healthcare area?
- Our police departments are controlled by the governments in each area
- Our fire departments are controlled by the governments in each area
- Our army, navy, air force and other military are controlled by the federal government
- Our food safety is controlled by our governmental representative
- Our banks are regulated by our government
- Our electricity is regulated by our government
Almost everything that controls citizen safety is in one way or another controlled by our governmental representative. I don’t hear too many, except maybe those on the extreme right of the political process like the recent KY Senator Rand, complain about any of these forms of socialism. So most of us are socialists in many areas so why not for healthcare? It is a fact that Medicare is the most efficiently run healthcare agency in the country. The private insurers spend three times more for their paperwork than Medicare. Medicare pays usually only 60% of the private insurers for most medical procedures. The main thing that need addressing in Medicare to keep costs down is the fraud in the system. Why isn’t any of our politicians in Washington talking about any of this?
Why aren’t we talking about costs? Is it really necessary for a surgeon to earn more for a one hour surgery than most of his patients earn in two months? Those sort of issues are nowhere to be found in the public debate. Why not?
I read recently that diapers and politicians are things that need to be changed frequently; both for the same reason. Maybe it is time to keep voting them out until we finally find some one with some common sense in this area. Yes, I admit Medicare has some long-term problems but they are all fixable if we would only get off our high horse and recognize the solutions that the rest of the world has already discovered.
Don’t shut down Medicare; fix it!!
And the journey goes on…….
RJ's Corner 
In Missouri today a single 75 year old man who wanted to purchase the same coverage as Medicare recipients get would have premium of $2900.00 per month ($35,000 per year) which is at least $31000 more than someone on Medicare would pay. I could not find a health insurance company that offered any health insurance for someone 75 or older. So I would have had to buy through a state pool. I am sure that is more expensive than if the product was readily available. Does anyone really believe that in 20 years from now that government is going to give every 75 year old medicare recipient an annual voucher for $31,000 (the annual premium for a 75 year old will then be closer $40,000 in twenty years if at a 1% increase in the cost of healthcare (like that will happen)). Under the Republican plan want happens when an insurance company decide some 90 year is uninsurable? And how does having insurance companies added 15 to 20% overhead exactly save money?
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Thanks for the comments Thomas.
Insurance, particularly Medicare is supposed to be that everybody pays into to it and the pool is used for expenses, no matter the age of the person. With Medicare that is still pretty much the case. But the private insurers like to get the most profitable into their plan and figure out how to exclude those like you or me. They do that by raising premiums to unaffordable levels.
Long story short Medicare is the only true insurance in this country. To replace it with a far inferior product is insanity.
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