4 Comments

Your piece, as is often the case with the subject of government violations of individual rights, is only the tip of the iceberg. First, Medicare doesn't come free. There is a quarterly premium to pay, and it only covers about 80% of most claims, not all. That extra 20% can be a huge number in itself because of how this system has increased medical costs through the roof. Because you need to cover this 20% you pay a monthly premium for that private insurance. Then you have the Byzantine bureaucracy that underlies it all, the bureaucrats making medical decisions and the scam artists who bilk millions if not more from a broken system. And finally, it doesn't cover a lot of very important drugs, which are hugely important in all of medicine. Just one of these drugs, if you need it, can cost tens or hundreds of thousands a year. The whole thing is a monstrous disaster waiting to happen, and it could be so, so much better if market forces instead of government force had been allowed to operate in the health care industry these last 60 years. Competition, freedom, and human ingenuity will trump government 'guarantees' and bureaucrats every time.

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I do wonder why young people entering the workforce and seeing all this extra money being taken out of their paychecks don't ask "why?". As a business owner I get to pay both sides of the "tax". In some ways it becomes a disincentive to make more because more is taken until you reach the high end of the thresholds.

This is another example of how people in power can stay in power as it becomes a topic that no one is willing to address and as long as you promise keeping it in place you don't face any political loss. This goes along with the campaign finance laws. It's all meant to keep those in power in power regardless of party affiliation. We are limiting and restricting new and innovative ideas to solve problems by trampling all over individual rights.

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Your excellent perspective serves as a reminder of the utter insidious nature of the Medicare affliction. Insidious on a number of levels.

I once "wrestled" with should I enroll or not, but decided I must if I am to retain what I have earned/saved throughout my life. The decision remains "troubling" and if I let it, would "insidiously" undermine my sense of moral responsibility.

Insidious because Medicare remains the driving force behind the cost/price schedules that represent the "Health Industrial Pharmaceutical Industry." What might the appropriate cost be for medical services can no longer be derived and understood. This leads to another "insidious" fact.

Availability of treatments heretofore unimagined can now be routinely offered by providers for no other reason than they can be of convenience, covered by Medicare, and for "no cost," provided to us geriatrics! "Eyebrow lifting" and surgical removal of toe-nails removal immediately come to mind.

Alas, either Medicare must be, as you indicate, responsibly phased out, or it will implode as part of the larger unmitigated disaster that all such Ponzi schemes portend.

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Old people vote. Young people don't. That's why the money goes to old people. This is immoral. I'm about to be at the medicare age myself. I don't want it. My insurance is better. I plan to ignore the various penalties for not signing up and continue with my own insurance for as long as possible.

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