Ahhh, yes, Medicare. A retiree's "new best friend".
A "slide
into Home Plate".
"Whew, made it."
"A comprehensive healthcare
plan I bought and paid for with fifty years hard work."
A plan with fifty
years experience, fine-tuning and tweaking.
Wait what's this?
Legislation to
substitute a worthless piece of paper? A voucher to buy insurance? I ALREADY PAID
FOR IT!!!!!
That pretty well sums it up.
And since it is so good, how to stabilize it and expand it?
How about for
each year that passes, extend Medicare eligility a year earlier.
That would mean
that while 65 year olds now receive it, within ten years, 55 year olds would be eligible.
Of
course, the 55 year olds would have to keep paying into it until they are 65, but
that would have the unusual result of funding it.
(This is not to suggest giving
Social Security to 55 year olds- just Medicare- and they pay for it.)
After twenty
years, 45 year olds would be covered (and pay for their coverage twenty more years
til sixty five).
If it is found to work, it could be extended more quickly.
Another
plus- the bureaucracy and framework already exist for Social Security and Medicare.
Add
two more secretaries and more computer memory and you could double the enrollees
for a pittance.
(Not exactly, but you get the point.)
The incremental approach
also affords the possibility to tweak the program and improve it as needed.
All
the while, the statistical input of the Congressional Budget Office can monitor that
it remains revenue neutral.
By the way, Social Security and Medicare are not "entitlements".
They were paid for. It is a contract with the "buyer".
Would anyone
agree to do this?
Nahhh. Makes too much sense.
OR
What about Single
Payer System or Universal Health Care?
Eek blasphemy!!
Or what about
the "public option" where everyone has the right to join Medicare if they
pay for it.
The desire to be covered this way is pretty much universal except
for the Republican Congreepersons and their paymasters.