Paul Ryan makes it official: Republicans are coming after Medicare next

[Nellise]

Maybe, just maybe, instead of writing a $1.5 trillion check they can't cash and slashing tax revenue all so their corporate donors can get a tax break they don't need, they should have written a tax reform bill that helped shore up those systems?

Medicare even has its own corporate subsidies Republicans added in when they introduced Medicare parts C and D. Medicare can't negotiate drug prices like other insurers as part of the part D law. That alone costs it billions of dollars.

[Felya]

If you ever truly want to fix your healthcare, you need to kill the medical insurance industry and set governmentally regulated maximum price for medical procedures.

There is another step before that. Do we want a system that is the cheapest possible or one that provides the most quality care? At this point, we are moving fast in the direction of cheaper, not quality or access.

I know people are thinking Trump’s fuck ups will lead to some sort of single payer, but that is not at all what is happening. We are doubling down on cheaper, with cuts on public services, which are then spent on corporate welfare. Trump is both, cutting services and then spending beyond what we can afford. Meaning, to get back to what we had before, we would need to increase taxes or drown in rhetoric about the deficit... which unlike one caused by a corporate tax cut, will be demonized by the same party that spend tax payer money to boost an already booming corporate industry.

[Heladys]

It's going to be exactly like Obamacare. "What do you mean my ACA is going away, i wanted Obamacare dead! Now what do I do?!?"

Stupid fuckers.

[Kujako]

Plus often what's donated is deductible. So it's a loss on some other welfare program's funding. Deductible donations are just private citizens deciding how government taxes will be spent.

Don't worry! The Republicans are working to make it not worth deducting, so people will donate even less.

[Shadowferal]

From the way things are going now, the tax bill isn't going anywhere...

[Zan15]

of course they are going after medicare.

its forced participation and forced purchase of an insurance product.

you know those two things republicans say are illegal in the ACA and no person should be forced to participate in.

[Felya]

You will never solve the health care issue before you set clear limits on how much different procedures and hospital visits can cost.

Someone in the food chain needs to die,and it's either patients who can't afford medical treatment, or someone's profits from the current system you have. You can't keep both alive if you want sustainable health care system.

Which is why single payer works. It removes the profit part of the dichotomy.

[Zan15]

I got a couple of links of my own for you:

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/30...olvent-by-2033

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/24...lvency-by-2034

Is your solution to do nothing? By the time I hit 50 both programs will be insolvent. To do nothing to reform these programs (or abolish them) is financial irresponsibility of the highest order. Doing nothing guarantees that future generations will have to deal with a catastrophic situation where the government has to decide between defaulting on its debt or monetizing the debt through the Federal Reserve and creating massive inflation (destroying the value of the dollar in the process).

You may not like Ryan's solutions, but if you or your political party don't offer any solutions then someone is going to have to step up to the plate and get the job done whether you like it or not.

Medicare Part A only...

Those dates do not apply to Medicare coverage for physician and outpatient costs or to the Medicare prescription drug benefit; these parts of Medicare do not face insolvency and cannot run short of funds.

So basically 1/4 of medicare will have a shortfall.



meh this is what happens when you have a population anomaly like the baby boomers. the solution was to charge them more 20 years ago when they knew the cost would exceed their medicare taxes.

So instead of making the very people who caused the problems pay for it, they are making their kids pay their bills.

these are the same people whom are against the ACA because they don't want to pay other peoples medical bills.


Now that we ignored it for 20 years you want to cut it?

good cut it for the baby boomers that caused this mess and did not pass legislation to fix the problem.


Once they are all dead, the cost curve will go back to normal



Same goes for SS, if they did not pay enough into the system, then their benefits should be cut. they had plenty of time to fix their problems.




btw we have been here for over 50 years of predicting insolvency of these programs and they never seem to get it right or they finally get around to fixing it.

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS20946.pdf

in 1970 they said 1972
in 1980 they said 1994
in 1990 they said 2003
in 2000 they said 2025
in 2017 they said 2032




There are such simple solutions.




Also nothing like spending another 150 billion on the military instead of funding up our healthcare accounts.

[Deleted]

I don't have figures going back in time to prove it, but I'd hazard a guess that that has always been propaganda. The US's social mobility is actually pretty poor compared to its peers.


https://www.brookings.edu/research/t...-of-education/

Denmark wins again. Suck it Sweden.