March 11th, 2013
12:48 PM ET
10 years ago
How Obama plans to save Medicare
New York (CNNMoney) - The White House often says President Obama has a plan for reforming entitlements, particularly Medicare.
However, the specifics of that proposal don't spring to mind as easily as the reforms being bandied about in Republican circles, such as providing seniors with vouchers to pay for premiums or raising the retirement age.
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Medicare is your typical liberal program... no concern for "unintended consequences".
"Life expectancy is 67... what do you mean people might live longer in the future?"
"What do you mean we can't reimburse providers at below-market rates and not expect cost-shifting to occur?"
"What do you mean we can't reimburse providers at below market rates and expct them to accept Medicare?"
Blah, blah, blah... government shouldn't be in the insurance business. Period.
I find it curious how conservatives can complain that "Obamacare" turns Medicare into a privately run, taxpayer funded health care program. Yet, isn't that *exactly* what Paul Rtyan's Voucher Program does?
Don't be drawn into Ryan's Voucher Program, folks. It will never come to pass. For one, it amounts to giving away "free stuff", which conservatives are supposed to be against. Two, the day will come when they complain about why are we giving away money for people to buy health care when they should do it themselves. Three, if it is such a good idea, then why wait ten years to implement it. Finally, the cost trajectory the Ryan Plan puts Medicare on will bankrupt it in less than a decade.
Fair is Fair wrote:
Medicare is your typical liberal program... no concern for "unintended consequences".
Blah, blah, blah... government shouldn't be in the insurance business. Period.
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Medicare was created only because insurers did not want to insure people over a certain age, despite the fact that these same people have been paying the companies for all of their working lives. It used to be that seniors couldn't get any sort of health coverage. People used to save up a nest egg not to retire in comfort, but to pay their end of life medical expenses. Some political ideologzies support the idea of allowing insurers to drop people or selective refuse customers. So, the government created an inusrance company called "Medicare" to offset the pervasive greed in the private industry.
Do conservatives have a solution to the problem, Medicare, that their own policies forced into existence?
People on average get over 3 times as much in benefits than what they paid into Medicare.
People are living MUCH longer with extremely expense end of life care and lots of drug costs. It is clear that people need to pay more into it to fund it and wait longer to start being covered.
As it is, high wage earners are subsidizing and carrying a LOT of other under paying people. It is high time all these medicare free riders pay for their medicare coverage.
I'm sure Obama's "solution" will be to cut payments to providers for Medicare patients which will shift the burden to the private insurance patients bill. And you wonder why private insurance keeps sky rocketing?! The providers simply cannot eat hundereds of billions in losses. They will go under, which is what Obama and the leftists would love because then you'll end up with their Holy Grail of government run healthcare.
And of course, he'll continue his class warfare crusade for the "rich" to now pay for everybody's medicare costs. He truly believes that well is endless. He is clueless.
The republicans are the medi-care problem & social security. They have been trying to tear it down sence it was put into place. They will lose this fight at every level. The goverment has an obligation to the health of everyone in this country. We are the wealthiest country and it's time we take car of our own people right here. Everyother industrialized country has universal health coverage and they do just fine. This country is all about GREED. The insurance companys ect have off the hook for way too long. POTUS is doing a great job and he is on the right side of history on all his policies period. The U.S & the world are changeing and everybody needs to get on board and move forward or be left behind.
Donna
People on average get over 3 times as much in benefits than what they paid into Medicare.
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If you invested $1000 a year into saving acount for nearly 40 years, how much interest would you expect to have earned by the end of that time frame? According to MathDotCom, the total would be $134,018.09 at a 5% interest rate, which is more than triple the amount of money contributed, $40,000.
"People on average get over 3 times as much in benefits than what they paid into Medicare."
Do you have trouble understanding how things like annuities actually work? Time-value of money? Etc?
The quick fix for both Medicare and Social Security is dismantle thiese programs. We could balance the budget overnight.
Let the people currently on these programs depend on there families for end of life care. The taxpayer shouldn't have to pick up the bills.
Stop spending money we don't have.
Donna wrote:
...I'm sure Obama's "solution" will be to cut payments to providers for Medicare patients which will shift the burden to the private insurance patients bill. And you wonder why private insurance keeps sky rocketing?! The providers simply cannot eat hundereds of billions in losses. ...
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Actually, shift the burden of cost is the major reason why health care is rising as fast as it does. There are too many uninsured people getting free care because hospitals cannot turn them away.
The cost of providing care to uninsured eventually gets passed to the insurance companies, who do not seem to mind because they get paid by percentage. The more something costs, the larger the dollar value of the percentage that they take. Higher costs charged by providers are in their best interests because they can then justify higher premiums.
Obama is long on words and very short on executing any ideas. This what you get when you elect a community organizer as President of the United States.