If Trump actually does this, it could be a good move

[bendog]

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/312051-gop-zeroes-in-on-changes-to-Medicaid

Medicaid as it exists does not really help with access in things like community health clinics. We had charity hospitals and the like before, but they were not adequately funded. Giving power back to the states might work with the poor. But, the majority of Medicaid expenditures is for the disabled/really sick and old people in nursing homes. Shifting the cost of that to the states would be a mistake. Yet, the dems were the party that put more and more people on Medicaid, which has left a bloated program that seeks not just to serve the chronically ill and disabled/old, but also serves are regular health insurance for people who don't have private sector sponsored care.

Trump promised to leave Medicare and Soc Sec alone. Maybe he'll keep it. Medicare is a problem because as it's set up, once you pay your supplemental insurance premiums, you're actually encouraged to consume as much HC as you can. But telling oldsters they're basically on their own with a voucher is not realistic either.

 

[Russ Alllah Gehry]

you're actually encouraged to consume as much HC as you can.

Damn! Outrageous!

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Medicare is fine as long as we all agree to fund it. The problem though is that we aren't.

As private insurance keep increasing rates every year to keep up with healthcare costs, Medicare has been level for many years now. How can the insurance that pays the most for their patients not have any rate increases?

They can't. Medicare and Medicaid greatly cheat healthcare providers. In order to recoup those losses, hospitals and doctors increase the cost to everybody else. That's one of the reasons private insurance keeps going up to unaffordable levels. It's also the reason when you see facilities close up, it's usually in the inner-city where most of the clients are government patients, and they don't have enough private insured patients to make up the difference.

The solution? Double the employee and employer contributions to Medicare so the government can start paying "their fair share" for the patients that are on Medicare. If we did that, it might slow down the rate increase of private health insurance.

 

[g5000]

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/312051-gop-zeroes-in-on-changes-to-Medicaid

Medicaid as it exists does not really help with access in things like community health clinics. We had charity hospitals and the like before, but they were not adequately funded. Giving power back to the states might work with the poor. But, the majority of Medicaid expenditures is for the disabled/really sick and old people in nursing homes. Shifting the cost of that to the states would be a mistake. Yet, the dems were the party that put more and more people on Medicaid, which has left a bloated program that seeks not just to serve the chronically ill and disabled/old, but also serves are regular health insurance for people who don't have private sector sponsored care.

Trump promised to leave Medicare and Soc Sec alone. Maybe he'll keep it. Medicare is a problem because as it's set up, once you pay your supplemental insurance premiums, you're actually encouraged to consume as much HC as you can. But telling oldsters they're basically on their own with a voucher is not realistic either.

Reforming Medicare is one of Paul Ryan's top three priorities. He intends to shove off Medicaid to the states and provide block grants to them.

There's a very good chance this will happen now that we have a seat of the pants Executive and a Republican Congress.

 

[LoneLaugher]

Medicare is fine as long as we all agree to fund it. The problem though is that we aren't.

As private insurance keep increasing rates every year to keep up with healthcare costs, Medicare has been level for many years now. How can the insurance that pays the most for their patients not have any rate increases?

They can't. Medicare and Medicaid greatly cheat healthcare providers. In order to recoup those losses, hospitals and doctors increase the cost to everybody else. That's one of the reasons private insurance keeps going up to unaffordable levels. It's also the reason when you see facilities close up, it's usually in the inner-city where most of the clients are government patients, and they don't have enough private insured patients to make up the difference.

The solution? Double the employee and employer contributions to Medicare so the government can start paying "their fair share" for the patients that are on Medicare. If we did that, it might slow down the rate increase of private health insurance.

Yeah! That's it! We don't pay enough.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Medicare is fine as long as we all agree to fund it. The problem though is that we aren't.

As private insurance keep increasing rates every year to keep up with healthcare costs, Medicare has been level for many years now. How can the insurance that pays the most for their patients not have any rate increases?

They can't. Medicare and Medicaid greatly cheat healthcare providers. In order to recoup those losses, hospitals and doctors increase the cost to everybody else. That's one of the reasons private insurance keeps going up to unaffordable levels. It's also the reason when you see facilities close up, it's usually in the inner-city where most of the clients are government patients, and they don't have enough private insured patients to make up the difference.

The solution? Double the employee and employer contributions to Medicare so the government can start paying "their fair share" for the patients that are on Medicare. If we did that, it might slow down the rate increase of private health insurance.

Yeah! That's it! We don't pay enough.

Yes, that is it. If you eat $25.00 of food at a restaurant, and you only give them $15.00 for the meal, you aren't paying enough. Yet that's exactly what happens with Medicare and Medicaid.

 

[g5000]

Medicare is fine as long as we all agree to fund it. The problem though is that we aren't.

As private insurance keep increasing rates every year to keep up with healthcare costs, Medicare has been level for many years now. How can the insurance that pays the most for their patients not have any rate increases?

They can't. Medicare and Medicaid greatly cheat healthcare providers. In order to recoup those losses, hospitals and doctors increase the cost to everybody else. That's one of the reasons private insurance keeps going up to unaffordable levels. It's also the reason when you see facilities close up, it's usually in the inner-city where most of the clients are government patients, and they don't have enough private insured patients to make up the difference.

The solution? Double the employee and employer contributions to Medicare so the government can start paying "their fair share" for the patients that are on Medicare. If we did that, it might slow down the rate increase of private health insurance.

Yeah! That's it! We don't pay enough.

Yes, that is it. If you eat $25.00 of food at a restaurant, and you only give them $15.00 for the meal, you aren't paying enough. Yet that's exactly what happens with Medicare and Medicaid.

It isn't the diner's fault a cheese sandwich cost $25.00.

 

[LoneLaugher]

Medicare is fine as long as we all agree to fund it. The problem though is that we aren't.

As private insurance keep increasing rates every year to keep up with healthcare costs, Medicare has been level for many years now. How can the insurance that pays the most for their patients not have any rate increases?

They can't. Medicare and Medicaid greatly cheat healthcare providers. In order to recoup those losses, hospitals and doctors increase the cost to everybody else. That's one of the reasons private insurance keeps going up to unaffordable levels. It's also the reason when you see facilities close up, it's usually in the inner-city where most of the clients are government patients, and they don't have enough private insured patients to make up the difference.

The solution? Double the employee and employer contributions to Medicare so the government can start paying "their fair share" for the patients that are on Medicare. If we did that, it might slow down the rate increase of private health insurance.

Yeah! That's it! We don't pay enough.

Yes, that is it. If you eat $25.00 of food at a restaurant, and you only give them $15.00 for the meal, you aren't paying enough. Yet that's exactly what happens with Medicare and Medicaid.

Why...it is so simple! You've simplified it! Well done!

 

[bendog]

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/312051-gop-zeroes-in-on-changes-to-Medicaid

Medicaid as it exists does not really help with access in things like community health clinics. We had charity hospitals and the like before, but they were not adequately funded. Giving power back to the states might work with the poor. But, the majority of Medicaid expenditures is for the disabled/really sick and old people in nursing homes. Shifting the cost of that to the states would be a mistake. Yet, the dems were the party that put more and more people on Medicaid, which has left a bloated program that seeks not just to serve the chronically ill and disabled/old, but also serves are regular health insurance for people who don't have private sector sponsored care.

Trump promised to leave Medicare and Soc Sec alone. Maybe he'll keep it. Medicare is a problem because as it's set up, once you pay your supplemental insurance premiums, you're actually encouraged to consume as much HC as you can. But telling oldsters they're basically on their own with a voucher is not realistic either.

Reforming Medicare is one of Paul Ryan's top three priorities. He intends to shove off Medicaid to the states and provide block grants to them.

There's a very good chance this will happen now that we have a seat of the pants Executive and a Republican Congress.

Ryan and other's Randian followers have ideological problems with middle class entitlements. They view the aging population as an opportunity to cut back, if not outright kill, Soc Sec and Medicare. Soc Sec would be solvent if the cap on taxed earnings was removed. Even without that, the bipartisan commission set out fairly painless means to get past the boomers aging out.

Medicare is a larger problem.

The aging of the US population will put strain on the financing of the Medicare program. Although growth in spending per beneficiary is projected at or below the rate of GDP per capita, the number of Medicare beneficiaries is projected to grow at approximately 3% annually. As a result, aggregate Medicare spending will account for a growing share of GDP over the next decade. As shown in Exhibit 3, most of the increase in Medicare spending as a fraction of GDP from 2013 to 2035 is projected to result from the effects of aging and growth in the number of beneficiaries, with very little of it a result of excess growth in expenditures per beneficiary. Further reducing per beneficiary cost growth below the projected level of GDP+0 is an important component of responding to fiscal pressure. But recent reductions in the growth of Medicare per beneficiary spending and projections for the next decade offer strong evidence that we have made great progress. Moreover, the Affordable Care Act provides a platform for the development of innovations in the delivery of and payment for health care, with the potential for significant improvements in both the quality of health care and its cost-efficiency. Such innovations would not only improve health care for Medicare beneficiaries in the future but also for the population at large.

Growth In Medicare Spending Per Beneficiary Continues To Hit Historic Lows

There are people in the gop who would like to return to a society where the cost of caring for the aged fell to their children solely. Trump campaigned against that. Pence said in the OP link that Trump wasn't backing off that.

We'll see. Personally, I don't see how we bridge the demographic gap of aging boomers without reducing benefits somehow. Ending "free" scooters and knee braces seems a small price to pay if the program that keeps oldsters in their homes and allows them to have the hospitalization associated with a final illness without bankrupting their estate. But Ryan's notion is to put people in voucher programs and have them purchase insurance in a market when, inevitably, 15% of people aged 80 will have Alzheimers.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Medicare is fine as long as we all agree to fund it. The problem though is that we aren't.

As private insurance keep increasing rates every year to keep up with healthcare costs, Medicare has been level for many years now. How can the insurance that pays the most for their patients not have any rate increases?

They can't. Medicare and Medicaid greatly cheat healthcare providers. In order to recoup those losses, hospitals and doctors increase the cost to everybody else. That's one of the reasons private insurance keeps going up to unaffordable levels. It's also the reason when you see facilities close up, it's usually in the inner-city where most of the clients are government patients, and they don't have enough private insured patients to make up the difference.

The solution? Double the employee and employer contributions to Medicare so the government can start paying "their fair share" for the patients that are on Medicare. If we did that, it might slow down the rate increase of private health insurance.

Yeah! That's it! We don't pay enough.

Yes, that is it. If you eat $25.00 of food at a restaurant, and you only give them $15.00 for the meal, you aren't paying enough. Yet that's exactly what happens with Medicare and Medicaid.

It isn't the diner's fault a cheese sandwich cost $25.00.

If it costs the restaurant $20.00 to make that cheese sandwich, why should they take a $5.00 loss?