bullwinkle
Gold Member
- Mar 4, 2013
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What plan would you suggest as a solution? Can you be specific? It has to be hammered out and explained very carefully because privatization and vouchers are not appealing to those who've lost their shirts in the stock market and/or to healthcare of the past. The offer has to be less chancy than in the hands of speculators. I would value a cogent suggestion agrued out to satisfaction.I believe Ryan's plan is the same as the basis for HMOs. When you sign up, you get an allotment (voucher?) of X dollars held by the insurer. Over the year, if you empty your bucket and still need care, you pay. Your doc also is restricted to keep your care costs within the assigned value, and if he/she signs a referral to another doc, the payment for the specialist comes out of your doc's allowance. So if you need a dermatologist or respiratory doc, your chances of staying within your allotment are pretty slim. Surgery coverage too has to be approved by the insurer, meaning that instead of a government agency running your healthcare, the insurer does it. If you are healthy with minimal needs this is a good deal. But I remember getting a call once from an HMO reminding a doc I worked with that heart transplants are considered experimental and therefor not covered. So if Medicare is more efficiently run than private insurers with much lower operating costs than HMOs that are more concerned with cost maintenance that patient care, what's the beef?After GOP wins, Paul Ryan puts Medicare in the crosshairs
11/11/16 08:00 AM
Throughout the Obama era, Ryan has pushed a radical budget plan that would effectively eliminate the Medicare system, phasing it out of existence and replacing it with a voucher system. Seniors, under the Speaker’s vision, would stop receiving guaranteed care under a popular and effective government-run program, and would instead receive vouchers that would help pay for coverage through private insurers.
After GOP wins, Paul Ryan puts Medicare in the crosshairs
Now Medicare, disabled and seniors who paid in for years. This is like a nightmare, really and this man is a multimillionaire and a RC, hard to believe he is a RC. Whoever voted for this sub human creature are sub human.
I am familiar with HMO's. Most people do go to their family dr and get referred to a specialist. An allotment? So lets see in health insurance you can reach the donut hole same as with scripts?
Pay , most seniors on SS live on a fixed income and can't even afford their meds. Lets not talk about disabled people. And yet a multi millionaire who has gov insurance paid by tax payers taxes get his HI paid for and a Cadillac plan as well.
Not all of us were born with a silver spoon. Us baby boomers worked our buts off and we were adults at the age of 26, not children. Ryan needs to go.
First off, Medicare is not run more efficiently. It's less efficient by far.
Second, Medicare only works right now, because private patients (you and me) are being charged a higher price. The main reason our health care costs are so high, is because we're paying for not only our own health care, but also paying for Medicare.
The doctor is charging you a higher price.... and you are paying the Medicare tax. So you are paying for medicare patients two different ways.
Third, Medicare is means tested last I checked. People with more money, pay higher premiums.
Fourth, if you are living on SS, then 1. you did a poor job saving 2. you should get help from your family.
Fifth, if you are waiting on some silver spoon rich person to give up his riches, so you can have free health care, you are going to be bitter and sick for the rest of your life. You need to plan for your own future. Not wait around on your butt for government to fix your life.
It's never happened before. Never happened anywhere in the world. And it won't happen in the future. If you buy the left-wing myth that some policy in government is going to fix your life, you will be a sad person when you die.
You might want to read up why Medicare got started. Putting your money in the market is not an assurance it will be there and with interest rates no one makes much in a bank savings plan. I am fully aware of how Medicare works, we pay FICA which is SS and Medicare our of our paychecks. Seniors and or disable either 65 or 2 years after becoming disabled get on Medicare which then charges a premium. Copays are 20% and there is a deductible for hosp (Part A) and medical (Part B), also one is not forced to take Part B. There will be a 10% penalty for not taking Part B and taking it later in life, why
because insurance is cheaper with the more people who have it. Look at it like group, the bigger the group the less one pays.
Also Part D which came into effect under Bush Jr. which is the script ins plan for those with Medicare. If one does not sign up for it, then there is also a penalty if one decides to later in life.
That is the beauty of the ACA, even healthy people need to get insurance, so its just not all the sick elderly people. This is not some kind of socialism, anymore that SS and Medicare is. Everyone pays what they can afford. One illness can put one in the poorhouse.
The problem is the gov, keep borrowing form SS.
This is one the universal problems with left-wing ideology. You are taking desires and wants, above facts.
It's called math. You can come up with a million reasons why Medicare is needed. And some of them may even be valid. None of that changes the fact that "math" doesn't care.
Right now, I could really use a new car. There are dozens of reasons, valid reasons, why I should have a new car. Better gas mileage. Fewer repairs. Less time in the repair bay missing work. Broke Air Conditioning, messed up shocks and struts. Fit all my kids. And my luggage. Blaw blaw blaw blaw.
The problem is, I don't have the money for it. I don't have the cash to buy a new car. I show up at the dealership with $2,000 in hand, and he's going to laugh at me. I can explain all the millions of reasons why I need a car, deserve the car, and have earned a car..... but if the money I have doesn't equal the cost of a car.... then I don't get a car.
Medicare is not sustainable.
http://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2015 Trustees Report SS Medicare.pdf
According to numerous reports from various groups, and government agencies, including the Trustees of Medicare itself, we have a conservative estimate of $10 Trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities.
Now you can say all you want about how we need it, we want it, we should have it, and we deserve it and it's required and it's earned, and on and on and on.....
Fact is..... the math doesn't add up. We can't afford the system as it exists. It is not sustainable.
The only question is, do we destroy the entire country.... or reform medicare?
See, I've read up on Greece, and there were people who warned Greece, both from the outside, and inside Greece, that their health care and pension system was not sustainable. The math didn't work. They kept raising taxes, and still the math didn't work. They kept increasing the minimum wages and regulations. And still the math didn't work.
Over and over, the math didn't add up.
But instead of reforming and cutting health care and pensions.... they, like you, paraded their endless excuse of reasons why they paid into it, and so they earned it, and they deserved it, and the wanted it, and had to have it, and they needed it.
Now look at Greece. Companies moved out. Jobs are gone. People are burning wood, because they can't afford gas, and most of the hospitals are closed. Doctors have no medication, and have said (as quoted) "all I can do is tell them how they will die".
Math doesn't care about all your rationals. You either accept it, and change to fit the math, or you refuse and math will destroy your life.