The truth is the truth. If I had had a private non speculative retirement portfolio and had been required to deposit into it every month I would be getting 2-3 times the return. Rick Perry is right. And Paul Ryan is right about Medicare. It would be a lot cheaper to just pay the insurance premiums for private insurance for seniors and let them choose their own doctors etc. they would get more bang for their buck and it would eliminate the waste and fraud.
You mean kinda like how the Federal govt gives funds to those at private universities? Where did that get us? A lot of defaulted student loans and colleges overcharging for worthless degrees while propping up their universities with needless arenas and "wellness" centers.
Governments at both the federal and state levels have so many regulations and requirements relating to private health insurance companies that seniors would be hard pressed to find a comparable plan on the private market, especially if they have some health issues. The one thing about Medicare is that it basically has no cap on enrollee spending. If you want to make private health care affordable to seniors, you have to remove all of the regulation or red tape, or it will be simply unaffordable. Seniors don't need private plans that cover things like abortion or STD screening, for example.
The elimination/phase-out of Medicare has to come with significant repeals of federal and state legislation governing the health care industry. This would allow for more competition in the market and allow for more companies to offer catastrophic plans. The system we have now is broken -- even the private system, because it decouples costs from benefits. If you are covered by your employer under a typical private health care plan then you have almost no incentive to reduce your health care costs.