Posted on 08/02/2015 3:18:02 PM PDT by Jim W N
Fifty years ago, President Lyndon Johnson traveled to Independence, Mo., to sign legislation creating Medicare and Medicaid.
Ronald Reagan warn[ed] it would lead to socialized medicine.
Critics of the 1965 legislation warned that both [Medicare and Medicaid] programs would spend much more than supporters predicted, that price controls and rationing of care would follow and that the quality of care would eventually suffer. All of the warnings have proved correct.
In 1965, the House Ways and Means Committee estimated that Medicare Part A, which covers hospital bills, would cost $9 billion a year by 1990. But the actual cost after the first 25 years was $67 billion, and that didn't include Medicare Part B, which primarily covers outpatient costs.
As health economist Theodore Marmor pointed out: "Hospital price increases presented the most intractable political problem for the Johnson administration. In the first year of Medicare's operation, the average daily service charge in America's hospitals increased by an unprecedented 21.9%. Each month the Labor Department's consumer price survey reported further increases . ... In the State of the Union Address, Jan. 17, 1968, Johnson ... promised to 'stem the rising costs of medical care.'"
Today, both Medicare and Medicaid have exploding budgets. Medicare spent more than $600 billion last year. Federal Medicaid expenditures are estimated at $331 billion, with the federal portion averaging about 57% and states and some local governments paying the rest.
In short, it appears the Democrats who passed this massive and convoluted ObamaCare system learned nothing from 50 years of Medicare and Medicaid. Government involvement dramatically increases spending, followed by clampdowns on soaring prices, leading to restrictions on doctors and patients.
Perhaps next time, we might try market forces rather than another failed effort at centralized government programs.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Critics of the 1965 legislation warned that both [Medicare and Medicaid] programs would spend much more than supporters predicted, that price controls and rationing of care would follow and that the quality of care would eventually suffer. All of the warnings have proved correct.
In 1965, the House Ways and Means Committee estimated that Medicare Part A, which covers hospital bills, would cost $9 billion a year by 1990. But the actual cost after the first 25 years was $67 billion, and that didn't include Medicare Part B, which primarily covers outpatient costs.
As health economist Theodore Marmor pointed out: "Hospital price increases presented the most intractable political problem for the Johnson administration. In the first year of Medicare's operation, the average daily service charge in America's hospitals increased by an unprecedented 21.9%. Each month the Labor Department's consumer price survey reported further increases . ... In the State of the Union Address, Jan. 17, 1968, Johnson ... promised to 'stem the rising costs of medical care.'"
It appears the GOP hasn't learned much from this either since most want to replace Obamacare with more government intervention into healthcare and very few call for no government interference, letting instead the market economy run healthcare which it did successfully for almost 200 years creating the highest quality, most available healthcare in world at minimum cost.
Repeat out loud, over and over again, to as many people as you can: when it comes to healthcare, the economy, and everything else the feds have no constitutional business meddling with...
"GOVERNMENT IS NOT THE SOLUTION, GOVERNMENT IS THE PROBLEM."
Get the feds out of healthcare (socialized medicine is a disaster) and out of the economy where they don't constitutionally belong.
Leftists will never admit its a failed program as long as its giving “free stuff” to people
So, when will Social Security go broke?
When will Medicaid go broke - now that Obola is shredding it for his Obomacare subsidies and failures?
I recall the LBJ speech. I was 23 and thought it was BS then. Still do, only now we no longer have to speculate.
Next time it will be single payer. It is inevitable.
SS has been in the red since 2010. It will have to reduce payments in 2033, by law.
When will Medicaid go broke - now that Obola is shredding it for his Obomacare subsidies and failures?
Medicaid gets funded solely thru the General Fund. We borrow money now to pay for the benefits.
That's what Trump supports.
Every “major” Republican running for President supports the continuation and protection of the unconstitutional centerpiece programs of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.
Same goes for the Republican members of Congress.
In other words, the blame doesn’t just belong to the Democrats.
I’ve posted this opinion/recollection here before but your bolded comment on the article reminded me of the hospital/doctor scuttlebutt my mom talked about in that mid-60s time period. She was a surgical nurse for an ophthalmologist. The doctors were universally aligned with Ronald Reagan and the critics as regards socialized medicine and costs. This has become an axiom about that which you subsidize you get more of it. This has now transferred to college costs via the student loan program yet politicians still are enamored of the “free stuff” solution rather than the market.
Nobody can reliably forecast right now. We have to have data on how quickly the Obamacare Death Panels can shorten the lifespan to where the numbers work out.
I guess us old codgers are just gonna have to root around & work some more (whew!) pay some more into SS & manage to somehow earn enough coins to get a bite to eat & a few threads so we don’t have to go nekkid. (I’m like Manny the Hippy who once said, “Man, I look better in threads!” in reply to Carson’s remark about the hippies going nekkid at some beach or the other.
Everybody thinks he's a cowboy until his horse breaks a leg.
I’m on Medicare.
I’m 67
Sp Trump is really behind this effort and not Obama and the Dems?
That’s one reason at 67 I’ve finished law school and just took the bar exam, so I can be independent.
There are are few of us who may be lawyers, but believe in minimal constitutional federal government, states’ rights, and individual freedom including the GOD-GIVEN right to discriminate (AKA freedom to choose).
The government is seventeen trillion dollars in debt. Everything is broke but that doesn’t mean they stop spending.
As long as they can create fake money and the charade continues, it’s all fun and games.
The problem isn’t what the end game will be, but when.
It’s already gone on FAR LONGER than I ever expected.
BS. A SUMMARY OF THE 2015 ANNUAL REPORTS Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees
All I said was that leftists will never admit that a wealth-transfer program was a failure. I wasn't trying to imply any else.
I’ve not read it, but I bet there is no mention of the Death Panels. Which changes the whole equation for both Soc Sec and Medicare. None dare call it euthanasia.
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