Medicare is underfunded by $72 Trillion (with a T).
It makes SS look like a robust program.
Significant rationing will occur no matter who is in charge or what we term it. It’s guaranteed because such a high percentage of the post 65 population will be unable to afford healthcare in addition to Medicare.
A part of me wonders if some of the “post 65” population will find their health BETTER WITHOUT some of the “care” they are getting.....NO, I do not mean surgery, and other life saving care, etc...I mean a few too many drugs prescribed....we have a friend whose husband is getting concerned because her doc just prescribes drugs for EVERYTHING (she’s 64)....and there are many other solutions she refuses to look into...
I object to the use of the term, "rationing" for anything other than government-controlled supply limits.That is, there is no rationing if the market is free and you pay for what you get. There is no rationing if you have an insurance plan, including a government-run insurance plan, and it does not pay for everything you want/need. Not even if you can't afford to pay out of pocket.
Rationing is when the government interferes with your ability to get more health care than the government decides that you "need" or "deserve" or is "cost effective." And the rationale for government insurance comes from the same impulse as the desire to prevent Bill Gates from paying a billion dollars for medical treatment for his family. The trouble with preventing that is that if nobody pays for expensive care, that care will remain out of everyone's reach for all time - but if rich people do pay for state-of-the-art care, a knowledge base will develop which will enable the cost of that level of care to be reduced. Let whoso thinks that is pie in the sky reflect on the fact that an American secretary today gets far better medical care that Queen Victoria did. Do you actually want to foreclose the possibility that your grandchildren will get medical care as much better than what you get now, as the medical care you get is superior to that which your grandparents got? Is the shadenfreude of preventing Bill Gates from getting better care than you do worth that? That is directly contrary to the mission statement of the Constitution:
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity
and the explicit mandate of CongressTo promote the progress of science and useful artsPaying for health care out of pocket is not "rationing."