"An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry."* * *~George Eliot, Felix Holt, Chapter 5
This morning, the chickens learned from two former independent public trustees for Medicare and Social Security what the foxes in our political hierarchy were up to with their recent budget forecasts for Medicare :
... the program's long-term deficit may be roughly three times what the trustees projected.Politician's fudging the numbers?
. . .
In addition, for the third consecutive year there were no independent Medicare trustees to issue a separate statement. Without them, the Obama administration was able to put forward an unjustifiably positive outlook for the Medicare program and the impact of the health care legislation. If public trustees had been in place, they could have helped ensure that a more realistic view was presented in the report, possibly including a reasonable best estimate along the lines set out in the chief actuary’s alternative.
Say it ain't so!
But don't worry. It's only America's health care we're taking about. The new entitlement programs will be better. Much better.
Really.
. . .
What's that?
Why don't you trust me?
-Wes
Medicare is not sustainable at current tax rates, and is distorting healthcare in toxic ways. Medicare requires hospitals and doctors to accept the Medicare reimbursement as the entire payment for treatment, at below the cost of treatment. The hospitals don't want to turn away those patients, so they cost-shift the loss into higher prices for the insured. Critics then claim that "the healthcare system is broken" because prices are skyrocketing.
ReplyDeleteWhat irony. Medicare policy, among other factors controlled by government, is to blame for the price increases. It is a hidden tax on the insured.
The free market in healthcare is breaking, and the government is breaking it. Our policy makers have already designed a system of price controls that doesn't work. Their solution is to cover up this failure by blaming "the market". The "market" is short for the freedom of people to produce and cooperate among themselves.
That freedom is what the government wants to take away, in favor of higher hidden taxes and directed rationing. Your leaders have been buying votes with lavish promises of what the government will deliver. Their plan is to put you all in one boat, then make you pay for their promises to prevent the boat from sinking.
Obamacare Bails Out Medicare.
The funding for Medicare/Medicaid should be discussed and apportioned publicly, rather than tie all of U.S. healthcare in suffocating regulation while it goes broke anyway.