What’s really scary? Acting like nothing’s wrong with Medicare

Kyle, I hope you linked to comments made by Bill Clinton concerning this topic?

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Will the real Bishop Eddie Long stand up and come out of the closet?

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Kyle, you blame Democrats for not submitting a solution to the Medicare cost problem, but you ignore that the same is true for the Republicans. The only substantial proposal the Republicans have come up with is the Ryan plan, which is not a solution to Medicare costs, it is an abandonment of the Medicare idea.

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Interesting the Healthcare Plan is part of the solution you know the one Republicans lied about and
made it difficult to get a better plan passed. Does medicare need some attention you bet but doing away with it for those under 55 ics not the answer.

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Democrats do not lie about Ryan’s plan. Ryan is deceitful when he calls his plan a “reform of Medicare.”

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To Michael H Smith, in his desire to appease the right Bill Clinton put his foot in his mouth again, thus allowing narrow minded bigots to use it as fodder to claim democrats will compromise on their terms. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. You can live down there in your world below the mason dixon line where 1930’s thinking is prevelant. Get a grip, the country has seen the republican smoke & mirrors and they dont like it, you will not only lose the presidental election in 2012 but possibly the house and never mind the media salivating over the senate you will lose. No matter what happens,once the president wins reelection he then can push his agenda (because he cant run again) and he will stymie the idiots who think they are smart.

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What’s really scary is acting like there’s nothing wrong with exempting the richest Americans from paying taxes on the pretext that this will result in creating jobs, when there’s no attempt being made to ensure that the jobs in question are actually being created because of these tax breaks.

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First, reforming Medicare is fixing an existing entitlement, not adding a new one.

Second, Democrats’ carping about the GOP was purely cynical: Their hurdle to passing Obamacare was getting other Democrats on board, not the vastly outnumbered Republicans. Now, in divided government, the two parties have to work together or let things fester until 2013 or later.
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Fixing Medicare is the No. 1 issue. Bill Clinton brings up a good point. The Dem so far have offer no solution.

The government will probably be divided in 2013. Either party protecting the satus quo is going to ruin the country.

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MarkV If you want to use the word “lie” in a sentence, it has to immediately be followed by the word “democrat”

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First, reforming Medicare is fixing an existing entitlement, not adding a new one.

It is more like fixing an existing entitlement for those of 55 years and older and TRANSFORMING it to solvency for future generations of Americans under the age of 55. No one is going to kill Medicare or throw granny over a cliff.

Put Bill Clinton, Alice Rivlin, Paul Ryan and Senator Tom Coburn in a room together for a week and I’ll bet you’ll get legislation that transforms Medicare and Medicaid that is acceptable to all of us.

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ND’
do you live under a rock in Moldovia?? Tax breaks??!!??
The top 10% of wage earners pay 40% of all individual income taxes. They pay way more than any other group.
The bottom 50% of wage earners pays 3% of income taxes.
What do you want 100% ???
VAT Tax——the real answer you spend it you pay tax on it.

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Rand Paul had a plan that would give us a surplus in 5 years.

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If my fellow Conservatives have any sense they will drop preposing any changes to Medicare. Let it fail (or rather bankrupt the Feds) Then the retards can worry about what happened. The US Public is too stupid to comprehend what is happening and the Demoncrats will play that to the end.

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Kyle, what you are ignoring is the fact that one of the main reasons Medicare is having problems today is the Duhbya led Republican backed drug program which they conveniently “forgot” to fund.

Funny how someone else always has to clean up those Republican “oversights”

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Kyle, you obviously have not read the Ryan bill. I suggest you do before pontificating over what it does and does not do. First, you are wrong in saying it would not effect those 55 and older. There is a very tiny line in the legislation that caps all entitlement spending if the deficit exceeds a certain % of GDP. Clever. The biggest entitlement programs are Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. A cap means a reduction. And not only would it impact Medicare but Social Security as well and IT WOULD NOT EXEMPT THOSE 55 AND OLDER FROM CUTS. On top of this, as you probably do know, your Republican buds don’t even want to wait to enact this through the normal legislative process. Instead, is it 1 of their demands in exchange for raising the debt limit before we start defaulting on TBonds on Aug. 2. Blackmail is not the normal legislative process.

I could go on far beyond what anyone wants to read as to the other incorrect beliefs. For example, what Ryan have proposed is not just like the health insurance he receives as a member of Congress or even the exchange program that is part of the Healthcare Reform Act. It is a voucher pure and simple for an amount which the Budget Office estimates would leave most Seniors paying a majority of their health insurance premiums out of their own pockets. . . if they can find an insurer that will insure them. Medicare has been here almost 50 yrs. and therefore you don’t recall but maybe your Dad or a Grandparent may recall and inform you that the norm, under the private insurance plans that existed prior to that, was that they simply would not insure Seniors because it was not profitable for them. Seniors do get sick more often and it probably is not profitable for private insurance companies to offer any sort of quality insurance to them. Could this be the main reason Medicare is not profitable now? Could be because it is run more efficiently than most private health insurance programs. Does that make us a society want to throw grandma under the bus? The fact is Seniors are healthier both physically and fiscally because of Medicare (there are plenty of studies showing this) and live their final years with more dignity because of it. It is a good program for Seniors, their children, their grandchildren, Kyle’s Dad or a grandparent, and even eventually for Kyle if he is counting on savings from his newsman’s salary. Cuts should be made but not on the backs of the elderly and poor. Sacrifice should be shared (that means the wealthy). I am a Senior and I approve this message.

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Being scarily partisan is OK…but ‘pants-on-fire’ falsehoods aren’t? Let me educate you re just some of Medicare/Medicaid reforms in Obama’s Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (PPACA), since you obviously haven’t read it, visited its many program sites & know nothing about it..but like to wrongfully insult Obama/Dems:

1.Creating a competitive insurance market:
–2014 ACA Insurance Exchanges Will Rollout – will improve consumer bargaining power > lowers premium & health expenditures and creates consumer choices & higher quality options

2.Medicare expensive fee-for-service system wastes billions annually –
–Medicare “bundling”of payment for entire treatment needs or episodes of care, which may span multiple providers and settings, rather than for individual visits or procedures will reduce costs AND improve care co-ordination, quality & outcomes.

3. 15-30% of Health Services Rendered Are Unnecessary/Duplicated – $15B Wasted Annually
– New Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute charged with advanced comparative effectiveness research
–As of 2013, the new.ACA Independent Payment Advisory Board, will be charged with developing proposals to reduce per capita growth in Medicare spending & slow overall growth in national health expenditures
–New Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation focuses on service delivery and payment innovation,and is charged with developing cost-effective strategies for improving quality of US health care delivery & outcomes

4. Prevention is Key: 75% of US Health Expenditures Are Spent on Preventable Chronic Diseases, Prevent Disease & Contain Costs
–Medicare Preventive Services – ACA worked with insurers & providers to provide preventive care counseling, services, checkups & annual wellness exams free-of-charge to Medicare beneficiaries
–ACA-created interactive education & healthfinder service, healthfinder.gov, which provides prevention information, resources, tips targeted to individual needs
–The First Lady/HHS working on ambitious “Let’s Move” national program – Mission: Help Solve National Childhood Obesity Issue Within One Generation http://www.LetsMove.org
–$100 million ACA Grants to Create Healthier Communities
–HHS Consumer Education Campaign

5. ACA & Health Insurers – Eliminate Abuses – Reduce/Control Costs, Prevent Punitive Practices
Which Cause Financial Harm/Distress to Participants, Make HC Affordable
–ACA Patient Bill of Rights
–New ACA Regulation – Stops Arbitrary & Excessive Premium Hikes, Limit to -10% & Require Review/Approval: Major & Much Needed Cost-Cutting Initiative
–ACA law requires & regulates insurers to spend at least 80% of premiums on direct medical care and efforts to improve the quality of care (for individs & small groups) & 85% for large groups (usually 50 or more employees)
–ACA Pre-Exisiting Condition Insurance Plan – new plan option to insure consumers who were rejected from their plan on basis of pre-existing condition
–Curbing Insurance Cancellation – ACA law prevents insurer retroactive plan cancelation due to honest errors in applications
–$250 One-Time Tax Free Donut Hole RX Rebate
.
6.Medicare Fraud – Stop Fraud, Save Billions (over $4 billion retrieved in 2010)
–Medicare Fraud Strike Force
–Healthcare Fraud Prevention & enforcement Action Team (HEAT)
–www.StopMedicareFraud.gov
–Senior Medicare Fraud Patrol – senior volunteer program
–Heat Task Force In Your Area Program
–Consumer Ed: Fight Back Brochure, Stop Medicare Fraud Widget
–HEAT Blog

7ACA & Reducing Rx Drug Costs
–ACA program to make Medicare prescription drug coverage (Part D) more affordable for beneficiaries, by gradually closing the Donut coverage gap
–50% brand name Rx discount when Medicare plan participants hit the donut
–Program to increase incidence of electronic Rx prescribing & CPOE systems, which eliminate costs & consequences associated with medical, medication & prescription errors. Cost analysis of CPOE system at Brigham & Women’s hospital found net savings of $16.7 million over 10 years.

8. Improving Care, Safety & Costs of In-Hospital Health Care
–ACA Partnership For Patients: Better Care, Lower Costs – New Private-Public partnership
–Promoting increased hospitals adoption & use of checklists of evidence-based patient care interventions to decreases incidence of infections, eliminates costs of consequential extended hospital stay & treatments
–Limits how much a hospital or facility can charge a patient for hospital-acquired conditions > lowers patient costs & encourages hospital compliance with cost-saving infection & medical error avoidance strategies.
–Enhanced transitional care programs during 30 days after discharge from hospital > can avoid or lower costs associated with preventable re-admissions, a $16-$20 million annual cost for Medicare.
–Medicare Community-Based Transition Programs

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Kyle how do you reconcile the Republican claims that ObamaCare cuts 500 million from medicare and the Ryan plan? Isn’t it true that the Ryan plan keeps that 500 million since it’s Republican sponsored subsidies to the insurance companies, Medicare C (also known as Medicare Advantage), and the pharmaceutical companies, Medicare D , the Bush drug plan. And isn’t it also true that even if the Ryan plan passed in it’s entirety it doesn’t even dent the national debt?
Your side needs to come up with the changes they’ve been crowing about since Nov. And oh yea! Where are the jobs. Its been 5 months!

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Medicare politicking won’t fix problem

…Rep. Ryan is right that Medicare needs fixing. The latest annual report of the Medicare trustees concludes the program is carrying $24.6 trillion in unfunded liabilities over the next 75 years. No amount of taxation alone can close a gap that wide. A combination of cost reduction, improved efficiency and increased revenues will be necessary.

President Obama’s tepid response is a proposal to create a 15-member appointed board to regulate the organization of health care services and to set prices for doctors, hospitals and other providers. Proponents of this model say it will lead to a more rational approach and a standard of care that reduces redundancy and price padding, while stressing preventive medicine.

Critics call it rationing of care.

In truth, however, both approaches will ration care. Republicans would control costs, and effectively ration care, by limiting the value of vouchers and therefore the quantity and quality of health insurance coverage that non-wealthy senior citizens can afford. President Obama would ration care through strong central control.

http://www.theday.com/article/20110528/OP01/305289958

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The posturing over Medicare cost containment ignores the fundamental problem: the unnecessary, outrageous cost of American health care.

Let’s revisit the health care issue! This time, let’s muster the courage to defy special interests and the wisdom to disregard myth and deception. We can reduce the cost of Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurance by a few simple measures.

We can cut billions from prescription drug costs by banning consumer advertising of prescription drugs, and negotiating, rather than paying asking price for patented medical drugs that are not traded competitively. All other developed countries do this, with good results.

We can reduce the excessive costs of medical imaging by running the expensive MRI and CT scanners two shifts a day, seven days a week, instead of 9-5 weekdays only. Not only would we need only half the number of scanners, we would also reduce the work hours lost in getting patients to the clinics.

We can save billions of dollars and hours of aggravation by shifting private medical insurers from the front end of the medical payment system to the back end. A public utility (“option”), similar to Medicare Part B administration, would decide basic health care coverage and set premiums by age group. Insurance companies operating under contract as lowest cost bidders would provide the clerical processes for eligibility verification and claims payment. This would offer a reasonable alternative to private health care insurers, which are unnecessary, burdensome middlemen between patients and medical providers. For example, Medicare Part B administrative costs are about 6-8% of the provider payments, private insurers administrative costs 10-15%.

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Obama has this habit of sticking his head in the sand. But that’s OK, because most of his voters do the same.

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By the way, I’ve worked since age 16 and am now 60, so, I have put hundreds of thousands of dollars into SS as well as Medicare and I would be happy just to get out of the system what I put into it–so vouchers don’t make me upset.

Oh and BTW, I second the notion but FAT CHANCE THAT WILL HAPPEN WE ARE DEADLOCKED into the system.

If I could get NON-PROFIT member owned and operated co-ops with with a few perks like re-importation and bulk purchase of drugs and medical devices the way I’d like them… HO, good bye federal government

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It is people like Kyle that are ubnable to see how the Republicans purposely ruined Medicare under Bush. Please explain to your red neck narrow minded pinhead base and FauxNews/Limbaugh listeners what Bush’s Medicare Advantage program is -basically a Medicare grab by private insurance companies of the Medicare pie with 14-15% profits and vote buying give aways to seniors like gym memberships. What insurance company would ever pay for that???????????????????
The we get the other vote buying scheme of the Repubs- medicare part D -free drugs with no concessions like the VA on bulk purchases from Big Pharma. Instead you get a parade of unneccessary drugs being advertised for seniors on TV. This vote buying scheme got Bush reelected in 2004 and WAS COMPLETELY UNFUNDED. Yeah the Repubs break the piggy bank and then call the other side socialists just like EMTALA passed under St. Ronnie- free emergency room treatment to any breathing person who shows up. Who is paying for that? Isn’t that pure socialism???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

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Our Military is run by the government so, we have a socialist Military. And, we constantly say our Military is the best in the world. Do those of you who hate Socialism think our Military is bad?

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I would give republicans more respect regarding the Ryan plan if they didn’t use the savings from Medicare to give even more tax breaks to the rich. That has proven time and again not to work, but that’s the only page in their playbook.

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Libtards and their scare tactics. Worrisome part is that is what works with the stupid ones in South Fulton, Atlanta, DeKalb, Clayton, etc.

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Kyle,
You and the rest of Right repeatedly display your ignorance by repeatedly saying “Obamacare.” The Republicans in Congress, most of who will never have to worry about healthcare for themselves or their families, are more concerned with protecting the profits of “health insurance companies” (an oxymoron if there ever was one) and the pharmaceutical industry. Kyle, if you are blessed to reach the age of Medicare and Social Security, you will not refuse those benefits, just like the rest of hypocrites on the Right.

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What a great transcriber of the GOP Talking Points Kyle is. How does the process work, Kyle? Is there an early morning conference call with Karl Rove, Frank Luntz, and Dick Morris where you and your fellow shill scribblers get your writing assignment? Of course it’s not a coincidence that there are other “columns” on the Ryan Medicare plan that are making the same points you are. I particularly like the new moniker that’s going around to dub the Ryan plan “VoucherCare”.

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carlosgvv, what you inferred is what you were actually asking and no, we should become a socialist state because our military is the best in the world and it is completely owned-control by the government. Your logic is really bad, even worse than your use of conflated/apples-to-oranges comparisons.

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Sam – good answer. We can have “death panels”

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Lets face it. Some will have to die. It will pay to save your own money and be independent of handouts.

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There are always two ways to fix an budget imbalance – cut expenses or raise revenues. If your household budget is short, you have two options, cut your spending or get a second job, it just depends on your priorities. If cutting your spending means that your kids won’t have enough to eat, most people would go the route of getting that second job.

The same with Medicare. I believe it is a good, important program that Americans have come to believe in, respect, and count on. We don’t need to snatch it out from under people’s feet. I am sure there are some minor savings where cuts can be made from waste and fraud, but the main problem with Medicare is that the taxes paid in are less than half of what gets paid out. We need to increase the Medicare payroll tax to make it sustainable.

Now I am only talking about the Medicare tax. Do I believe in raising the Social Security tax to make it sustainable? No. It had its tax increase years ago. Do I believe in a general tax increase for the main budget? Not necessarily, though I believe these tax increases should not be “off the table”. I think serious cuts in all budgets are necessary, but it again comes down to priorities. If you won’t cut the military budget, then you had better accept tax increases to pay for it.

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Truth Be Told

May 28th, 2011
9:59 am
@bxnyc May 27th, 2011 7:50 pm

Oooops

You are BRILLIANT!!!! I agree with you 100%.

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What i s scary — is the failure to recoggnize that medicare is more of an entiltlement for the american medical diseaseare complex, than anything else ,since disease and sickness is profitable the entire logic of this issue must hange focus towards creating a socirty of healthrather than a culture of sickness, hard to do because of the subsidies and revenues that papers like this one get lto push poison food — check your cupons. Disease=profits wellness not.

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We need to increase the Medicare payroll tax to make it sustainable.

That alone will not work, even with budget cuts it will still fall short. The cost curve of healthcare has to be bent. Government alone cannot do it nor can the private sector alone do it. Both will continue to produce the same failures. When government can’t do it and the private sector is too costly to do it, what has been the chosen path in this country – either for profit or non-profit member owned co ops. I favor non-profit member owned co ops, with, if I must concede to the term “certain socialists” or “exclusive market privileges”, like public funding for individuals in a variety of forms, use of existing government healthcare infrastructure since we do actually own it, purchasing rights to re-imported drugs and in bulk same for medical devices, plus a great deal more I don’t feel up to typing out. The only area left to private sector insurers would be non-basic healthcare and major medical.

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disease illnesss and injury should not be ‘free’ market commodities

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Yeah and that is the kind of ignorant convoluted retort I expected from you, carlosgvv. The military does not serve the same functions as an economy or economic system. Want to see what can happen when a military functions as an economy in a socialist communist country, then look at North Korean.

And before you do something dumb like reply with: Well… well… just look at China!
Yeah, and China is more capitalist than we are in ways.

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what do you call it when profits increase in direct relation to your disease burden? and who/what gets those profits only a capitalist society could even imagine to profit from diseased citizens

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Krugman had a good analogy: think of Medicare as a footbridge that is deteriorating and will eventually become unsafe. You could propose structural repairs to fix its faults; Ryan doesn’t do that. Instead, he proposes knocking the bridge down and replacing it with trampolines, in the hope that pedestrians can bounce across the stream.

There are two ways of scrutinizing the Republican Medicare privatization plan. The first is to emphasize its needless cruelty towards seniors. Ryan wants to shift costs onto seniors and use the savings for tax cuts while pretending to care about a debt crisis. The other is that Paul Ryan’s numbers don’t add up. The combination of the two makes this proposal worthy of the trash heap.

The question isn’t why the Democrats would treat this scam as such. The question is why the media isn’t doing the same.

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It is tough to get people to accept changes in anything. I know this from experience, especially older folks. Every 3 years when we went to negotiate new contracts, the employees were most concerned about the changes rather than the annual raises we would get. They always would say, it worked fine for this long, why did they have to change it. That is the same about Medicare. The people who have been using it for a while see no reason to change it, no matter how many figures you throw at them. There have been so many rip offs by doctors and hospitals, that something has to change, but not to get rid of it for a voucher plan, which would be too confusing for a senior. My brother was in the hospital last month for three days, and although he did not have surgery, they still charged him over $29,000. All he did was lay in the bed, eat, and take medicine. The doctor came in for 10 minutes and charged $250.00 each day. Something has to change this rip off.

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Medicare is not a problem all by itself. It is a part of the overall problem of the excessive cost of health care in the USA. We spend from 50% to 100% more per patient on health care in the US than any other highly developed country. There is no evidence that the quality of the care is better than theirs. The solution is not to shift costs from Medicare to its beneficiaries. That does nothing to control costs, but it may make decent care unaffordable for many older people. The Affordable Care Act contains many provisions aimed at reducing the cost of care especially in disseminating information about the most effective treatments. Right now there are many medical treatments which do the patient no good or even harm the patient. (The Republicans used these provisions to claim that “death panels” would be set up and that we would “pull the plug on Grandma.” So, complaining about demagoguery by Republicans seems disingenuous at best.)
Health care is something that few would deny to those who are sick, just as education is something that few would deny to those who cannot afford it. So, one way or another care is provided. I believe that it was during the Reagan Administration that emergency rooms were, by law, prohibited from denying care to those who have no money and no insurance. Our whole health care system is too inefficient and too expensive. The Ryan plan would do nothing to make it less expensive or more efficient. If it is such a good plan why does he delay enactment of it for 10 years? Clearly he hoped that current and near term beneficiaries would not care about what would presumably not affect them. Perhaps he was wrong. It should also be noted that most of the money saved under his plan goes to cut the top income tax rate from 35% to 25%, not to reducing the deficit.
Kyle Wingfield should learn something about a subject before he writes about it.

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Uncle Billy: “The Ryan plan would do nothing to make it less expensive or more efficient. If it is such a good plan why does he delay enactment of it for 10 years? Clearly he hoped that current and near term beneficiaries would not care about what would presumably not affect them”

Exactly.

azazel: “only a capitalist society could even imagine to profit from diseased citizens”

The elephant in the room that people like Kyle Wingfield — and Paul Ryan — want at all costs to make sure we don’t stop to look at. And these are some of the same people who also claim to defend the Christian religion? It’s the most grotesque distortion of anything resembling a Christian notion of charity – or any other for that matter – to have an entire health system that’s driven by the profit motive.

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Michael H. Smith

Talk to people in Canada who love their health care system and are not filing for bankruptcy whenever a tragic accident or illness strikes their family, and then check out how much better their economy is compares to ours, overall.

We pay more per capita per person for “healthcare” in this country then in any other prosperous western nation, and our costs continue skyrocket while insurance companies rake in profits. Similar to how gas prices are high and oil company CEOs are rolling in the dough.

Why are you conservatives in bed with the rich, who care nothing about the 98% rest of us who are not wealthy but work our butts off to make ends meet?

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Steve

It is becoming a bore when people assume they have all the facts that I don’t, think they have me pegged as they’ve lucidly envisioned and think me to have never seen or experienced tragic accidents or serious illness as have they, personally or in their family and the difficulties of struggling to meet financial obligations forthwith, even when under the worst emotional strains of the circumstances they can present. I suppose it would not be nearly as dreadful if only such individuals of enormous imaginations, only superseded by the need of altruism, to at least once have something interesting to offer as an alternative to the failures provided under the drab absolute confines of socialism or capitalism, government or enterprise, oh why not just have it good ol’ hemlock or arsenic to speed things up a bit?

Please don’t give me “either, or” ultimatums that I’ve rejected completely out of hand as “neither, nor” solutions to the problem.

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Fact is Social Security would be fine if the all money taken from the fund used for other purposes through the years would be returned. I don’t hear exactly where you come down on the Medicare issue. But if you’re a young republican, why not KILL IT for say 30 years, and after the boomers are all dead reinstate it in it’s present form for your own benefit.

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Yes, there SHOULD be a “hands off Medicare” policy. Cutting half of the handouts the United States gives to other countries would go a long way toward saving Medicare. The needs of the citizens of this country should come before the needs of other countries. What the US gives to Israel alone is obscene. Since when must our citizens suffer in order for our tax dollars to go toward supporting other countries?

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wampum: Republicans created this “crisis”. What a shame it’s biting them in the a$$.
——–

Wrong. Democrats created Medicare and lied about it’s long term costs. Now their failed program is biting America’s fiscal condition in the a$$. Wasn’t your Idiot Messiah’s Obozocare supposed to fix all this? Yet another Democrat failure.

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We need to slowly, methodically, but surely shift our spending priorities. This means that over time, we spend less and less on the military (why do we need twice the military capacity of the rest of the globe?). If we only did the, and cut taxes, there would be a huge negative effect on the economy and jobs. Politicians talk a lot about defense, but it is really about jobs for their districts. So, instead of tax cuts, we should shift this money to where the demand and the need is – health care, which will fix medicare, and create jobs at the same time.

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How utterly deceitful of you, Kyle.

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Let me get this straight, even liberals agree Medicare is heading towards insolvency but they want to “do nothing” in a “Hands-off-Medicare” policy?

WHOA! Talk about throwing granny over the cliff ?! Yeah, that may just be so.

Now, “Granny”, is sitting strapped into her unattended Medicare wheelchair that is rolling downhill out of control headed towards the proverbial death cliff, with a poster attached to her wheelchair over her gray haired head that reads:

HANDS-OFF-POLICY!
Do Nothing

under signed – Your Do Nothing Democrats

Like that reverse-engineered spin I’ve just put on your “Hands-off-Medicare” policy of “Do Nothing”, libs? I’ll bet this take-off on your MediScare ad will play like pure hell with my boomer generation.

Keep it up. Go ahead and make my 2012 election.

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Thanks, I’ll gladly take it.

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Micheal Smith,

I believe that I offered an alternative to doing nothing. How do you think the majority of Americans would respond if you asked them : should we spend less on the military and shift that money to healthcare?

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MHS: “LWM if there is no profit to be made in treatment of the sick do you really think you will be able to find a doctor anywhere? Have drugs? Hospitals?”

You’re reducing the notion of making a decent wage to making a ‘profit’, a “return on investment” and other such obscenities.

The fact that in our time it’s so difficult not to make this mistake indicates the stranglehold the capitalist logic has on our public services.

The health of citizens is a basic necessity of life and profiteers have no business in the basic delivery of that necessity. The only ROI here is the health of actual human beings, which of course the profiteers have no interest is. Let them go elsewhere in search of their gravy train. Let them seek it on Casino Wall St.

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Please read the following information, entitled: “CBO: Seniors would pay much more for Medicare under Ryan plan.”

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2011/April/06/CBO-Seniors-Pay-More-Medicare-Ryan-Plan.aspx

Fund Medicare, as it presently is, by cutting tax subsidies to corporations, raise taxes somewhat, esp. by letting Bush tax cuts for wealthy expire, cut fraud and waste in current Medicare.

Look outside the given “box” for answers; the “box” is microscopic looking only at “saving” Medicare by providing vouchers. Shift focus from Medicare cuts to cuts in military budget and cuts in tax subsidies to corporations and let Bush tax cuts expire for all.
.

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Yeah, okay, Bill, if that is what you believe fine. I simply know differently and better than to accept what you said.

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I’m frustrated with the headline of this article. Of course Democrats aren’t pretending like nothing’s wrong with Medicare. Nothing could be further from the truth.

At least you got that much right.

PS. Off to do some slave labor before my Master kicks my… you got the picture, back to the honey-do list.

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In that case I have nothing to worry about, Allen – I don’t have a double wide!

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More cost sharing or “pooling of risk” would drive down the cost of Medicare for all.

Neither will your Democrats allow individuals in the states to form, independent of absolute Federal Government ownership and control, non-profit member owned and controlled healthcare insurance Co Ops with all the elements I have written about in the past. Which one of those elements is the re-importation and bulk purchasing of prescription drugs and medical devices. It is in both of these areas where the highest profit margins exist.

When your Democrats give-up federal ownership and control of the entitlements to the individuals in the same fashion as the federal government now allows individuals to manage their own IRA’s and, AND, enacts a Constitution amendment that does two things: 1) Fully funds the entitlements before one penny more can be appropriated for any other government spending, including the operation of the federal government itself 2) Shall produce a balanced budget which only allows for deficit spending to pay for war or natural disasters, then I might have a reason to believe the “dishonest ponzi brokers” of the past have stop dealing dishonestly with respects to our future and that of our posterity.

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Kyle’s link above goes to Commentary Magazine’s site. In the “About Us” section of this site, it describes itself as “the flagship of neoconservatism.” It seems to me that this criticism of the World Health Organization study as a “pseudo-intellectual endorsement of wealth redistribution” is more of a reflection of Commentary Magazine’s bias than the WHO’s.

Their problem with the WHO study seems to be, in part, that it measures whether poor and middle class people have equal access to quality health care. Maybe it’s just me, but I believe that most reasonable people would consider such assess to be a good thing and worth factoring into such rankings. Having the best quality health care in the world doesn’t mean much if a significant portion of the population can’t access it.

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Bart Abel
May 29th, 2011
11:30 am
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If your Idiot Messiah’s Obozocare plan is such a great idea, why is Medicare scheduled to collapse in twelve or thirteen years?

Idiot Messiah: Liar. Failure.

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Kyle, regardless of the validity of the WHO study ranking, you cannot deny that the US spends much more per capita for health care without achieving a correspondingly better health than many countries with universal health care.

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The whole talk about federal government being broke, cannot pay bills, is a worst manager of money, etc., is a claptrap used only to force decisions favorable to a certain section of the population. The government is us, all the people, and each of us wants certain things to be done by the government we have elected, but we just want to pay only for what each of us wants.

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A balanced budget is favorable to all segments of society except for parasites and government workers.

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Nothing like being forced to pay the bills created by the mental-illness of spendthrifts!

Can’t we just put them away in communal asylums somewhere as a matter of serving the public good, give’em all the Kool-Aid their kidneys can stand, put plastic protective covers over all the bedding and let’em weave baskets for the rest of their lives in order to keep their hands off other people’s money. I mean, wouldn’t this be a humane cost efficient method of treating a terminal fiscal disease.

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Remember Obama’s use of the Postal Service as an example when he was pushing ObamaCare off on the public?

Um, how’s the Postal Service doing these days, Mr. Obama?

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Who gets the money spent by the government? Mostly Americans. The problem of the deficit and debt is mosty that the government gives people the money they have requested, but does not take enough from them to cover those expenses. I bet all those people who complain about government spending too much would complain even more if the government did not support programs they benefit from.

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Gee, I wish the federal government would start cutting programs just so I could find something to complain about. Let me know when the federal government has been cut by 90%, then I’ll start complaining about the 10% of federal government I actually need being threatened by the anti-government anarchist.

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No matter which way the debate goes on Medicare I’ll probably be locked into it because of my age. But if I could get vouchers, have an enhanced version of health savings account, have a healthcare Co Op similar to Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, Washington here in Georgia to join, which would be allowed to buy re-imported drugs and medical devices, with bulk purchase privileges, and some State of Georgia sponsored funding such as from gaming and sin taxes, I would drop traditional Medicare, ObamaCare and the federal government ownership, control-dependency of my healthcare, like a hot rock burning my hand to take a Ryan voucher!

Reading assignment for inquiring minds:

Group Health Cooperative

http://www.ghc.org/

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Medicare taxes only cover half of Medicare expenses. Medicare Pard D is 25% of Medicare expenses. Medicare Pard D was never paid for: no new taxes were incorporated when it was rolled out. The people receiving Medicare Pard D never paid any extra to receove it. That is one-half of the problem there. Either do away with Medicare Pard D or up taxes to cover it.

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The united nations is not what most people consider a centrist organization. Certainly the UN and its’ agencies are no gatekeepers of gospel truth.

It is also very doubtful that Newt and the Republicans desired, let alone were pushing for a single payer system in the ’90s, since HilaryCare was single payer system and they all opposed it furiously.

Japan faces major problems which will challenge their single payer system in the way the US now faces with our entitlements – aging population. Very doubtful Japan will be able to maintain its single payer system without making drastic reductions in services or going to a hybrid form of single payer as now the UK is undertaking with its nationalized healthcare system. Which is not to say a hybrid mix of single payer/ private insurer is bad, considering that is exactly what Switzerland has as a system and it appears to work very well for the Swiss. But, then again, that is in reality some of what the U.S. has had since the advent of Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP, though, the US system is not nearly as good a model when compared to the Swiss.

However, the Swiss model could be replicated with the government portion replaced by Healthcare Co Ops like the one found in Seattle Washington. With a few tweaks including various forms of revenue streams other than depending solely on taxation, the Group Health Cooperative model could be improved. Likely at lowered costs, increased coverage with less exposure to the political risk of cuts or loss of services or care.

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