I think if you dug down into the numbers, you’d find that Medicare isn’t an intergenerational wealth transfer at all, but rather a transfer from the working classes (especially the middle and upper classes who work) to the non-working classes. All you need to get on Medicare is to get kidney failure, even if you’re 20 years old. And the welfare class has a huge incidence of self-inflicted diabetes and accompanying high blood pressure, which most refuse to manage effectively, even when Medicaid is willing to pay all the expenses.
So huge numbers of them come down with kidney failure way before reaching the age threshold for which Medicare has been sold to voters, and immediately start getting full coverage for EVERY medical condition, in addition to dialysis and other kidney failure treatments. Most of them are obese and smoke, so they have a long list of medical problems, and if they ever worked, it wasn’t for very long, because they went on disability welfare early in their adult lives, and wasn’t at an income that involves paying much tax of any kind, since they’re poorly educated and not any more motivated to succeed at a career than to take care of their health. This is largely being paid for in taxes on middle-aged and older workers’ earnings, and retired people’s investment and pension income.
You make a good point, though Medicare eligibility is generally limited to age 65 or above, kidney failure can also make an individual eligible, regardless of age. Some FReeper should dig into the official numbers and chart which groups are getting payments, the geographic distribution of payments, etc. for both Medicare and Medicaid (the low-income, means-tested health care program).