11-11-2016, 11:48 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-11-2016, 11:55 PM by Eric the Green.)
(11-11-2016, 11:08 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: Privatizing Medicare is not the same thing as putting an end to it.
Of course it is. Medicare is single payer government-run health insurance for older people. Privatizing it is the health insurance business. That's what we had before Medicare. Some diminution of it as Ryan wants is just the first step in killing it, which will happen under his plans. As I read the reports, according to Ryan the program is to end for everyone in 2022.
The reason for Medicare in 1966 and Obamacare in 2009 was because leaving health care to the insurance companies gives too much power and money to the middle man, and health care costs were driving companies out of business and people into bankruptcy, as well as leaving many people uncovered. Single payer gets rid of the middle man and gives more bargaining power to the people in the program. Business wanted Obamacare so they could save money on their employee health insurance. Now they oppose it and want to give it back to the insurance companies. The failure of it is caused because it was not a government-run public program, but just some sets of rules for the health insurance companies to follow, and a mandate for everyone to contribute to health care whether the insurance companies provided it at reasonable cost or not.
The easiest solution is just to extend medicare to everyone. We pay for it in payroll taxes now if we work, and the medicare taxes are very low. If we expand it to cover everyone, the medicare taxes will go up, but not that much, since the younger people covered will be healthier. It works very well, although the taxes probably need to go up anyway since it's running out of money. Of course that won't happen anytime soon now. The same is true of social security. The solution is to raise the cap on income that is taxed for social security, and perhaps (maybe) tax earnings on dividends and interest too. But that won't happen anytime soon now.
It seems to me the difficulty with it is political. It goes straight against the Reagan ideology of less government and "anti-socialism," which has had a 40-year reign now in our country. It's too bad, but it won't change until at least the 2020s, IF the millennials grow a spine.