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The question is not Medicare Reform, it is healthcare for all
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by YankeeJim | January 11, 2011 at 10:01 am
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I just got this blip from the Concord Coalition that discusses Medicare. Look, here is the deal, some people in our society run out of resources to pay for basic living expenses. They grew old and despite their being responsible all of their lives, they didn’t earn enough and could not save enough to last their lifetime. If American society decided not to care for those in need, what makes it any better than anywhere else on Earth? A portion of society will need dignified help and especially those who tried hard to earn it.
There is a cost to society for covering needy people and that is something one can estimate. When you take such obligations and add them up, you can begin to get an understanding about why America can’t do nation-building and why it needs to control immigration, for instance.
Americans who say they are conservative need to be much more frugal about going to war and wandering around the globe when there is such a backlog of domestic needs.
“Why Medicare Is So Popular -- and Needs Reform
Recent calculations by Gene Steuerle and Stephanie Rennane at the Urban Institute underscore Medicare’s financial challenges and the need to curb its growing costs. The new numbers show the relationships between what people of different ages and incomes pay into Medicare and Social Security and what they are scheduled to receive from them.
Current and future retirees who earn average or above-average wages are scheduled to receive slightly less in cash benefits from Social Security than they paid in taxes. But with Medicare, Steuerle and Rennane concluded that “past and current retirees, and most working age adults, will never pay for all of their benefits."
This is because Medicare payroll taxes and premiums cover only 51 to 58 percent of total Medicare expenditures over time. With the oldest baby boomers starting to sign up for Medicare in large numbers, elected officials must focus on reforms that can make this important program sustainable in the decades ahead.”
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at 10:02 on January 11th, 2011
The problem comes from deficient system design and poor legislative oversight and regulation that is too cumbersome and costly. It is not the social need that is the problem. Congress needs to look itself in the mirror and the President needs to take charge.