Here is still more from the President’s health care town hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire:
THE PRESIDENT: And so I do think it’s important for particularly seniors who currently receive Medicare to understand that if we’re able to get something right like Medicare, then there should be a little more confidence that maybe the government can have a role — not the dominant role, but a role — in making sure the people are treated fairly when it comes to insurance.
But Medicare is fiscally unsustainable. The President already said that earlier in the discussion. So Medicare is not a successful model for a new system, because we can’t afford it.
Continue to the next post in this series…
Other posts in this series:
- The President’s overpromise that everyone can keep their health plan
- Putting the government in charge of your health insurance
- Waiting in line
- Government-mandated benefits
- Preventive care does not save money (in the aggregate)
- The House bill would increase short-term, 10th year, and long-term budget deficits
- The President was incorrect — AARP opposes the bill
- The bills would take Medicare savings needed for solvency and spend them on a new entitlement
This is one that really bugs me. If we gave all our money for retirement and care in our elderly years to a private planner who then left their clients accounts underfunded as we see in the federal government, would we entrust them with a larger role after they admitted the money wasn't there? Didn't Bernie Madoff do something similar? Would anyone describe Madoff as a good manager?
At the current level of taxation and age limit, maybe. But Medicare hit a financial crisis along with Social Security back in the 1980s, and that's what they did – they raised the age and raise the tax.
"if we’re able to get something right like Medicare, then there should be a little more confidence that maybe the government can have a role"
Getting Medicare "right" seems to be one of the aims of the bill. So why does that same bill give government a role at this time?