Comments on: An Open Letter to President Obama

By: neighhay

neighhay — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:42:38 +0000

In my opinion this has become a pretty informative thread and thanks to all who are contributing…could this be one of Obama’s “teachable moments”…..and we are having it on a CONSERVATIVE blog? hmmmmmm

By: isugradstudent

isugradstudent — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:42:43 +0000

The major costs to Medicaid and Medicare are due to long-term care costs. Also, Medicare faces the same problems as SS– increase in the aging population and a decrease in the birthrate (# of workers).

By: Al Bregar

Al Bregar — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:44:10 +0000

Jerry,

I am all for a radical change in Medicair and Medicaid myself. However I don’t think your idea of radical change is the same as mine.
I want to see Medicare and Medicaid eliminated. It is not the place of the government to maintain the healthcare of millions of Americans. It is programs like this that erode the American tradition of self sustainability and personal responsibility. If individuals fail to plan for their future how does that become the responsibility of the millions of us that do?

By: Jerry

Jerry — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:45:11 +0000

I don’t know a heck of a lot about Medicaid, but you’re right that rising costs will soon deplete the Medicare surplus and fresh funds will not keep up with costs. So something has to be done. Either cut benefits, or boost taxes on our kids, or radically change the system so that medicine is no longer the road to riches for doctors and hospital CEOs. (and insurance CEOs, too).

I favor the radical change. Otherwise health will soon be the biggest expense in eveyone’s budget. It’s not that way in Canada, or England, or Japan, or many other places.

By: neighhay

neighhay — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:07:50 +0000

I am almost sixty and I definitely plan to knock myself in the head before letting anybody, including the almighty government, put me to sleep!

By: Woodrow

Woodrow — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 05:46:22 +0000

I suppose now that the baby boomers are to retire instead of paying them the benefits they payed in for all those years they should just go and be put to sleep.

By: neighhay

neighhay — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 02:37:55 +0000

Hi Jerry,
Thank you for the correction and for enlightening me..Would it perhaps be accurate to talk about FUTURE economic woes since baby boomers like me are about to use up all the funds? (I am assuming this is true..it is refrain I have been hearing for years)
What is the scoop from you on Medicaid?

By: Jerry

Jerry — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:55:35 +0000

Medicare passed in 1965. It’s funded by payroll deductions, same as Soc Security, and it also ran up a surplus, same as Soc Security. The surplus will be with us for another decade or so, thanks to the baby boomers.

So it’s not causing any economic woes for the feds.

By: neighhay

neighhay — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 18:57:01 +0000

I hadn’t thought the veterans issue through too well…

I am thinking maybe the government could give all veterans free health care in private hospitals at government expense. This would be to compensate them for putting their lives on the line for their country.

I don’t believe it would be appropriate to extend this free care to non veterans because A)average citizens haven’t necessarily given for their country in the same manner as veterans and B) the govt might possibly go broke with that kind of financial burden(just as I think Medicare/Medicaid can be blamed from way back when -1944?_ for some of our economic woes)

However you may say that if the federal government pays for veterans’ care then what about police, firefighters, etc..won’t they all demand/deserve free care paid for by the government as well? I believe that could be solved at a state and local level and maybe would have to be considered part of the compensation package before retirement and the pension plan after retirement. I’m just throwing that out there off the top of my head.

At the moment, except for veterans, I would lean more toward private insurance companies to cover medical costs for everybody. Even though I distrust insurance companies I think I distrust the government more, although honestly it’s kind of a toss up for me. However, unlike having one governmental source for funds, with more than one insurance company if you get screwed by one you can always go see what it feels like to be screwed by another.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 15:11:14 +0000

Doesn’t that put the veterans into Medicare (which you oppose for others)?

Actually you appear here to advocate the ‘single-payer’ system that I favor. Sometimes it’s called MedicareForAll. We could go to private hospitals and the bill would be paid by taxpayer/govt money. A lot like many other countries.

Since currently about a third of all spending goes for overhead in the private insurance arena, we could get more health care for the same money by cutting out the middleman. Medicare spends about 2% on overhead.