Is 2011 The Beginning of the End for Medicare? Would the Democrats let this happen?

[still_one]

...
The Rivlin-Ryan Medicare reform proposal centers on a voucher program that beginning in 2021 would give every Medicare-eligible American a payment that they would use to purchase private insurance. The amount of that voucher would be based on average annual per-person Medicare spending in 2021, and annual increases would be limited to no more than the rate of GDP growth plus one percentage point. That's a lot less than the current annual growth rate in health insurance costs. Moreover, high-income seniors would only be eligible for a smaller annual increase. The upshot of this proposal is that if your voucher amount doesn't buy you the level of insurance coverage you want, well, the rest would need to come out of your own pocket. Rivlin-Ryan would also raise the Medicare-eligibility age from 65 to 67.

http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/111761/is-2011-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-medicare;_ylt=AhS_vRiPpIv84an1r61MJwK7YWsA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1MTZlZThlBHBvcwMzBHNlYwNmaWRlbGl0eUZQBHNsawNpczIwMTF0aGViZWc-?mod=fidelity-livingretirement&cat=fidelity_2010_living_in_retirement


This is what we are facing, and if the Democrats do not defend Social Security or Medicare, what good are they?

[KansDem]

1. It's all about fattening the corporations.

To hell with that! Make the corporate fatcats work for a living, instead of sucking the American people dry with "vouchers."

If this happens, expect health-care costs to skyrocket! What's to stop them?

[still_one]

2. and just maybe we can get out of the wars where we are spending trillions! Will anyone bring that

up, and if they do will the media report it?

[Cleita]

7. Rosanne Barr said something interesting on

Lawrence O'Donnell last night. She said she could end homelessness, unemployment and bring universal health care to all for more than a year with only one month of the military budget. Now I don't know if she was pulling figures out of her ass, but I would be interested in knowing how she arrives at this. I don't feel she's wrong.

[Recursion]

6. It could only fatten corporations if they offered affordable insurance

If insurance companies priced themselves out of reach of vouchees, they wouldn't get any money.

[Cleita]

8. Have you been living in a cave?

The health care and insurance corporations will be sucking off the government tit with the new health care bill passed. Their lobbyists wrote the bill and for their benefit.

[Recursion]

13. While I enjoy non-sequiturs as much as the next guy...

...they wouldn't get any money if they don't offer plans the people with vouchers can afford.

[Cleita]

15. But they will. They won't shoot themselves in the foot.

However, the plans they offer will be inferior and we will be back to square one.

[KansDem]

12. Blue Shield reignites health care insurance rate wars with huge increase

Dave Jones, California’s newly installed insurance commissioner, got a stunning chance to strut his stuff Thursday, after Blue Shield of California this week confirmed plans to raise rates for some individual policyholders by as much as 59 percent.

In a move that recalled Anthem Blue Cross’s attempt to raise individual policyholders’ rates by up to 39 percent early last year — which many credited with helping President Barack Obama’s floundering health reform proposal jolt back to life — San Francisco-based Blue Shield started telling some policyholders their rates would jump sky high by March 1.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/morning_call/2011/01/blue-shield-reignites-rate-wars.html

39% last year; 59% this year.

Now, what about this notion that insurance companies could price themselves out of reach of vouchers?

When you have no competition, i.e., single-payer public option, then you can do this...

[Recursion]

14. I'm not sure what your question is

If there's no insurance product a person with a voucher can afford, that voucher money won't go to an insurance company. I'm not even sure how there's an argument about that.

[Cleita]

17. I believe we will get single payer in California next year

if the bill is passed through the Legislature and Jerry Brown signs it. It has passed a couple of times but Arnold vetoed it. Brown has said he will sign it and we control both houses of the Legislature so I'm pretty certain it will pass. Blue Cross knows this so they are making a move for one more premium gouging before they have to sell the wares somewhere else.

[KansDem]

19. This transplanted Californian applauds you

Grew up in the Long Beach area; been living in Red State hell for some 31 years now!

Kansas went completely Red in the last election...:( (all four House districts, both senators, and the governor)

:thumbsup: to California! :D

[mmonk]

3. It seems so.

[Tippy]

4. I really don't see this happening....When push comes to shove

Democrats will come home, except for the Blue dogs that is why it is important to get thme out of office and keep them out...

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mmonk]

9. There is truth in that.

It's one of the reasons I'm not bowled over with the new health care law. It's about more and more privatization IMO.

[Cleita]

10. Of course it is. The insurance companies were in

on all the meetings and helped write the bill whereas the single payer advocates like physicians for a national health plan were arrested when they tried to get a seat at the table.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

21. You won't be alone with your No-vote for Obama if he allows this

and the gutting of SS.

It's a deal-breaker for me as well.

[Arkana]

23. Do you also believe that Obama is the Manchurian candidate too?

Because believing that is on an equal level of absurdity with thinking that Obama wants to destroy Medicare. Come on, folks. Really? Can we be realistic for ONE FUCKING MILLISECOND and think about it?

[Cleita]

25. If you can't see what is unfolding before your very

eyes, then you would be the one who believes in the Manchurian candidate. What a ridiculous statement to make.

[blindpig]

11. Damn good bet..

much better than 50/50.

[shraby]

16. They try that and there are millions of over 65's who are

on Medicare and like it who will raise such a stink they'll wish they had never thought of the idea. I seriously doubt they'd be that stupid.
The problem with the "Obamacare" is there are enough stupid people who don't equate that with Medicare..wait until they realize that Medicare might go the way of the dinosaur and you'll hear a great hue and cry thoughout the land.

[Cleita]

18. I believe this too.

So many of the poorly informed seniors don't know Medicare is government. When they realize it might be gone, they will cry out loud.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

20. "if the Democrats do not defend Social Security or Medicare, what good are they?"

IMO - zero. Zilch.

[Cleita]

26. No good whatsoever and we haven't had any real

Democrats running things in Washington for a long time. Our Party has been infiltrated and taken over by global corporatists just like the Republicans have been. Sure there are some stalwart defenders of what our principles are, but they are progressively marginalized and squeezed out of the system. Look what they do to Dennis Kucinich all the time and even though he wins his seat he may lose it to gerrymandering after all. Then he won't be around to be a thorn in the side of the establishment any more. How convenient.

[Arkana]

22. Social Security and Medicare survived some of the most vicious

Republican Presidents and Congresses ever.

They aren't going anywhere. They are American institutions.

[Cleita]

28. They have been systematically weakened since their

inception and the only reason they have survived is that we once has a press that reported on it. Now, the media is part of the problem so if, we the people aren't vigilant and fight back every way we can, you may wake up some morning having to take grandma in because she has no place to go and paying for all her medical bills as well.

[Arkana]

29. Thanks, Governor Palin.

Death panels amirite?

[Cleita]

35. Do you even know what you are talking about?

You are no different than Republicans who call Democrats Nazis. To compare what I said to what that horrible woman Sarah Palin would say tells me you really don't understand anything about Social Security and Medicare at all.

[Autumn]

31. That's because there were real Democrats to defend

Social Security and Medicare. I would never trust this current crop of "Democrats" defend them.

[Arkana]

32. You don't agree that there are good Democrats still?

Patrick Leahy? John Kerry? *Most* House Democrats? Just because they're not outspoken doesn't mean they're not good Democrats.

Not to mention good liberals like Bernie Sanders.

There are good Democrats, but there are no good Republicans.

[Autumn]

33. Very few. Alas, they do not have the numbers.

:shrug: There are too many who will side with the republicans in the "quest" for bipartisanship.

[jtown1123]

24. They probably won't touch Medicare right now. Social Security should be our priority right now

as it will likely be cut to get some debt ceiling votes.

[mdmc]

27. three little letters

D
L
C

[Autumn]

30. I don't trust any of them to defend

anything anymore. Sad but true.

[bullwinkle428]

34. Bernie Sanders said "Not on my watch!" this morning on

Thom Hartmann's show (re: Medicare & Social Security).