Indeed. Medicare costs projections in 1965 was based on the fallacy that the Americans alive then would have the same life history as the people born , say. in 1900,people like my mother. Well in five years she was gone, and by 1980, all the ladies in her old bridge club, except for a somewhat younger one who was still alive when we visited her three years ago. But begging with the greatest generation, we have received and come to expect, medicare care that
is so good that 75 will soon be the new 65. But the costs of keeping alive old people who do break down are staggering. The temptation will be to write off more and more. The Netherlands is the future, where people are “put down.” for reasons of expediency. More and more the question will be—unstated, of course—is he/she “worth it.”? I anticipate the equivalent of Roe v. Wade that makes the “right to die,” a government mandate.
Very well said! I don’t think those who can’t wait to get ‘free’ medical care realize that it will probably mean at best ‘palliative’ with a mandated death by the rationing of services and procedures.