Medicare Saves Money

[Derechos]

Every once in a while a politician comes up with an idea that’s so bad, so wrongheaded, that you’re almost grateful. For really bad ideas can help illustrate the extent to which policy discourse has gone off the rails.

And so it was with Senator Joseph Lieberman’s proposal, released last week, to raise the age for Medicare eligibility from 65 to 67.

Like Republicans who want to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with (grossly inadequate) insurance vouchers, Mr. Lieberman describes his proposal as a way to save Medicare. It wouldn’t actually do that. But more to the point, our goal shouldn’t be to “save Medicare,” whatever that means. It should be to ensure that Americans get the health care they need, at a cost the nation can afford.

And here’s what you need to know: Medicare actually saves money — a lot of money — compared with relying on private insurance companies. And this in turn means that pushing people out of Medicare, in addition to depriving many Americans of needed care, would almost surely end up increasing total health care costs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/opinion/13krugman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

[Vinca]

1. The way to save Medicare is to open it up to everyone.

The insurance model shares risk, but Medicare currently has the oldest and the sickest. Let some young and healthy people buy-in. Of course, Leiberbush represents the insurance capital of the world, so that will never come from him. It's obscene to suggest raising the age.

[nichomachus]

4. Leiberman also

has had free top-notch A-1 medical care since forever and will have for life.

[pinto]

2. Kick

:kick:

[HereSince1628]

3. Medicare is an obstacle to profiteers in the insurance industry...

In their view, medicare was only an accident of history during a time when life expectancies were somewhat lower and insurers found it impossibly unprofitable to offer anything approaching a mechanism for affordable health-care funding for the elderly.

Now that some people live slightly longer and now that they seem to have a bit of money to secure their retirement, the insurance industry has re-evaluated its position and decided that although the margins may still be small, they are very interested in mining the gold that lies under those golden years.

Medicare only appears to stand in their way. No mere publicly funded program is going to stand in the way of a determined corporate raid on a pile of money. They have broken the will of Congress to secure the lives of the elderly with a relentless push for 'needed' government austerity. The war on Medicare is now tipped in favor of the pillagers and the debate has been allowed to move on to where, exactly, the 'this lane closed' sign will be placed on Medicare.