[sodpoodle]

****And it will be popular right up to the end, as long as people perceive that they are getting something for nothing, or–same thing–a lot for very little.****

Medicare is NOT popular - it is mandatory. Workers and employers are forced to pay into SS & Medicare.

Upon retirement - seniors are required to pay premiums for Parts B & D ($150 per month). In addition they feel compelled to purchase Medigap coverage or pay the Medicare deductibles and co-insurance.

Millions of healthy Medicare participants are not costing the program: others get an array of items and services which are not truly “illness or injury” related.

Most of the outrageous cost of Medicare is due to Government bureaucracy - shuffling records - not treating patients.

[KeyLargo]

Ron Paul

Argues that Medicare and other entitlement programs create undesirable dependence on the government, worsening the nation’s financial woes.
Views the Medicare’s Part D prescription drug program as an unwarranted expansion of the government’s role in health care and a “reminder that the GOP sometimes can’t resist the temptation of big government.”
Didn’t take part in Medicare when he practiced medicine; offered low-cost or free care to those who couldn’t afford his services.
Proposes redirecting resources from defense spending and foreign aid to fund Medicare for those already enrolled, while weaning younger people away from such assistance programs in favor of free market approaches.

“Why exactly should Americans be required, by force of taxation, to fund retirement or medical care for senior citizens, especially senior citizens who are comfortable financially? And if taxpayers provide retirement and health care benefits to some older Americans who are less well off, can’t we just call it welfare instead of maintaining the charade about ‘insurance’ and ‘trust funds’?” — Texas Straight Talk weekly address, Nov. 2010

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/stories/2011/august/26/gop-candidate-health-care-platforms.aspx

[silverleaf]

correct, MEDICARE is not “something for nothing”

many paid MEDICARE/SS payroll tax all working life, as did employers

At 65 military retirees forced to enroll in MEDICARE A/B or no access to “free for life” military healthcare

Must now pay several thousand in premiums regardless of whether seek any healthcare

MEDICARE is linked to SS, no opt out, can't get just one, must be in both

Plus- still working and still paying payroll tax

MEDICARE is not “something for nothing”

[duckman]

Before Medicare is ‘killed’, I would like to see all the Medicare/Soc fraud cleaned up. According to this admin and previous admins, Medicare and Soc fraud is in the billions. IMO

[X-spurt]

Medicare is sure not a freeby the writer infers. As you say we were required to pay into the Medicare system right along with SS. When you get ready to draw back some all the money taken through the years, you must sign up for Medicare A or get no SS.

Don’t think you are correct on the mandatory-ness Parts B and D. It makes good economic sense to pay them $30 something a month for Part B and to add on private Medigap, but Part D am pretty sure is not required. Part D is for perscription meds, if you use a lot then Part D makes sense, if only a rare occassion perscription it does not.

The gubnint exceeds the costs by entitling many who did not pay in onto Medicare A and tying it in with that damn Medicaid freeby.

Medicare would be more fiscally sound if they simply let you purchase your own private insurance with the money you paid in all the years, but then they would not have access to all that money.

[kabar]

Most of the outrageous cost of Medicare is due to Government bureaucracy - shuffling records - not treating patients.

Medicare is unsustainable because people get three times more out of it than they paid into the system. Moreover, 75% of the costs of Medicare Parts B and D are paid by the General Fund. The premiums only cover 25% of the costs. With 10,000 people a day retiring for the next 20 years, Medicare is simply unsustainable actuarily. Like SS, it is a Ponzi scheme. Medicare will consume the entire federal budget if it is not reformed.

This graph shows that the average man and woman (average defined in the study as average income over their working lives and living to the average life expectancy) who start receiving benefits in 2010 get over 3 times more in benefits than they pay in to the system! Of importance, the study accounts for inflation by calculating all past taxes and future payments in 2010 dollars to provide an accurate comparison.

If the notion that Medicare recipients are simply "getting back what they paid in" is false then where is the money coming from? Simply, the excess received is being borrowed from younger generations and the cost is more than we can bear.

[campaignPete R-CT]

certain insurable losses cannot be handled by private insurance and require “social insurance”. Health care for the elderly falls into this category. So saving on your own for old age medical expenses isn’t enough. And no insurance company wants to insure and 80-year old who is ill.

There are plenty of solutions offered over the past 15 years by Heritage Fdtn, Gingrich, and now Ryan. And, yes, Medicare folks will have to start paying more than $96/mo. for their coverage, especially the age 65 to 75 crowd.

[SierraWasp]

Why are you so focused on the truth? Oh wait! So am I!!!

I'm focused on the truth that LBJ's Medicare was a mandate and worse yet, a blank check for Dr.s and hospitals that triggered the massive medical costs we see today!!!

Doctors, themselves fretted in those early days that this "fee for service" blank check mandate of Socialized Medicine for thousands of disabled and all those over 65 would cause this very inflationary outcome.

So now we have leftists/Democrats screaming for trillions more to fix a problem that Democrat congresses and Democrat Presidents brought on us in the very first place!!! Do they act the least bit regretful over getting exactly what they asked for to be coming down on all of us now???

This medical inflation by Medicare has boiled over the entire healthcare/health insurance scenario and is now in a vicious spiral!!! Thanks a lot Democrats... Obamacare ain't gonna fix it!!!

[Graybeard58]

Millions of healthy Medicare participants are not costing the program

I've been Medicare eligible for 22 months now and so far haven't cost it a cent. I pay my premium every month and every 6 months, my former employer and secondary insurer, sends me a check for 6 months worth of Medicare premiums.

[Impy]

Do I? Not really.