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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPaul Krugman:The Medicare Miracle
So, what do you think about those Medicare numbers? What, you havent heard about them? Well, they havent been front-page news. But something remarkable has been happening on the health-spending front, and it should (but probably wont) transform a lot of our political debate.
The story so far: Weve all seen projections of giant federal deficits over the next few decades, and theres a whole industry devoted to issuing dire warnings about the budget and demanding cuts in Socialsecuritymedicareandmedicaid. Policy wonks have long known, however, that theres no such program, and that health care, rather than retirement, was driving those scary projections. Why? Because, historically, health spending has grown much faster than G.D.P., and it was assumed that this trend would continue.
But a funny thing has happened: Health spending has slowed sharply, and its already well below projections made just a few years ago. The falloff has been especially pronounced in Medicare, which is spending $1,000 less per beneficiary than the Congressional Budget Office projected just four years ago.
(snip)
Whats the moral here? For years, pundits and politicians have insisted that guaranteed health care is an impossible dream, even though every other advanced country has it. Covering the uninsured was supposed to be unaffordable; Medicare as we know it was supposed to be unsustainable. But it turns out that incremental steps to improve incentives and reduce costs can achieve a lot, and covering the uninsured isnt hard at all.
When it comes to ensuring that Americans have access to health care, the message of the data is simple: Yes, we can.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/01/opinion/paul-krugman-the-medicare-miracle.html?mabReward=RI:5&module=WelcomeBackModal&contentCollection=Opinion®ion=FixedCenter&action=click&src=recg&pgtype=article&_r=1
daredtowork
(3,732 posts)Giving people access to health care takes them off the dole and puts them back in the productive workforce. Then it allows them to buy things, pay taxes, fund libraries, volunteer for community and charity activities, pay for further education, save for retirement.
Suddenly a bunch of people you always thought were just annoying whiners are out there having active, happy lives.
That's the miracle.
"d'oh!"
Bozvotros
(785 posts)Advance directives, hospice
Two words if you are conservative. "Death panels."
(Of course the so called death panels are actually an elderly patient and their family talking with a social worker or doctor about their desired end of life care.)
littlemissmartypants
(22,803 posts)Of the inevitable mathematical manipulation of economics. We still have state governors in the USA refusing medicaid and causing harm to children above all of our citizens.
I love science but numbers can be made to lie.
Peace, Love and the Righteous Fight.
~ Lmsp 🙌
Vine Gatherer
(94 posts)Isn't it?