Medicare - Just Let This ONE Paragraph Sink In

[kpete]

CBO letter to St. Paul Ryan :

The payment for 65-year-olds in 2022 is specified to be $8,000, on average, which is approximately the same dollar amount as projected net federal spending per capita for 65-year-olds in traditional Medicare (that is, the program’s outlays minus receipts from the premiums enrollees pay for Part B and Part D, expressed on a per capita basis) under current law in that year. People who become eligible for Medicare in 2023 and subsequent years would receive a payment that was larger than $8,000 by an amount that reflected the increase in the consumer price index for all urban consumers (CPI-U) and the age of the enrollee. The premium support payments would increase in each year after initial eligibility by an amount that reflected both the increase in the CPI-U and the fact that enrollees in Medicare tend to be less healthy and require more costly health care as they age. (For example, projected net federal spending per capita for all people age 65 and older in traditional Medicare would be about $15,000 in 2022, CBO estimates, in comparison with about $8,000 for 65-year-olds.)

FROM: http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/121xx/doc12128/04-05-Ryan_Letter.pdf

[geckosfeet]

1. What is that - the equivalent of one armor piercing tank round?

[Mimosa]

2. What does that mean in regular English, Pete? n/t

[kpete]

4. Eleven years from now,

the first year that this new “Medicare” program starts, the average 65-year-old will get a payment that couldn’t buy him or her a decent private insurance plan on today’s open market.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/05/28/painful-facts/

[Auggie]

6. Great! That's the year I turn 65...

:mad::grr::nuke::grr::mad:

[izquierdista]

7. Don't all it a 'payment'.

It's a cents off coupon. Like 20% off for new vinyl siding, or if you get your carpets cleaned. The Ryan coupon will give you a discount on an insurance policy that still won't pay for your medical needs.

[Mimosa]

8. Thanks, KP. n/t

[nonperson]

3. So what's your solution?

Cut Medicare and let the sick just die? There must be priorities that surpass profit and loss statements. We must ask ourselves what kind of society we want to live in and make the necessary investments to achieve the goals modern societies are based on. Otherwise we can all move back into caves. Health care is a RIGHT, not a privilege. Drug companies, insurance companies, the health care industry, they are all profit driven to the point of playing god and denying people adequate preventive, necessary or life-saving care. Is this the answer to higher prices?

How much will the Pentagon budget increase by 2022? How much will the abject refusal of our "leaders" to stop handing tax breaks to billionaires cost us by 2022? How much will Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and all the other wars of corporate protection cost us by 2022?

It's all a matter of priorities. The bottom 98% of the people in our society are currently the lowest priority. But we have to cut spending and taxes and let the free market handle health care so some fat bastard empty suit can get an increase in salary and bonuses.

[kpete]

5. my solution

NOT be for profit - Health care

[nonperson]

10. My solution too

But we're running far behind the health care lobby in implementing solutions.

[RebelOne]

9. Well, I already have Medicare, so I'm not going to worry.

And by 2022, I doubt that I will still be here.

[socialist_n_TN]

11. That's exactly what the problem is.......

Medicare, like Social Security, is an intergenerational PROMISE, like funding public education for the young. What you're basically saying is, "I've got mine, so screw everybody else." That's NOT what a society is all about.

I'll be 60 this year and, SUPPOSEDLY being over 55, Medicare will be there for me too, but I'm NOT just satisfied with that. And as old as I am, I'm ready to occupy Washington DC, to keep Medicare as it is now as far as benefits go. In fact, I want to extend the Medicare program to ALL Americans. IOW, Medicare for ALL!

And who's to say that you'll KEEP your Medicare? If they screw with it once and get away with it, why do you think that they'll STOP screwing with it?

You, my friend, are playing into the capitalist plan to divide us. And that's sad.

[Bubba Kush]

12. My wife and I are in the early 30s and disabled.

I have Medicare, and so will my wife, beginning in September.

My dad got his Medicare started early, at age 62 (His eligibility is at 65). Mom is the only one that is paying for her health insurance.

My son has one, and we pay about $100/month for him for basic stuff. Eye and dental are NOT included in this coverage. We would have to pay extra for a family plan, since Medicare doesn't cover it either.

I'd rather be paying single payer for all of us for universal coverage.

[socialist_n_TN]

13. I agree wholeheartedly with your last sentence

MEDICARE FOR ALL!