Posted on 07/09/2013 11:15:43 AM PDT by Bob Ireland
For some years I have listened to Rush Limbaugh, and heard him picture Medicare recipients as some sort of ungrateful leaches sucking off of the public dole. He characterizes them as resisting having to pay a dime for their medical coverage.
Being a fan of Rush, I have tolerated this misguidance on his part and sent him e-mails [I am 24-7 member] trying to save him from being caught in a 'lie'. He has never responded to these e-mails - for whatever reason.
Then yesterday - Monday - he mentioned a story about the Congress considering a bill to make Medicare recipients pay 'a few pennies' for their medical coverage - and the bill going down to defeat. I simply cannot remain silent in the face of this total fabrication.
I have been on Medicare for 15 years. My Medicare Part B presently costs me a little pocket change short of $100 a month - a little less that $1,200 a year. That money is deducted out of my Social Security check before I ever receive it. That benefit offers to pay 80% of my allowable medical bills, and I am responsible for the other 20%.
In my case - since I look at government programs with a jaundiced eye - I have signed my Medicare obligations over to a private HMO [called an Advantage Plan]. However, Obama's health care plan has drained the Medicare treasury by hundreds of billions of dollars; therefore the future of the program is in question. In some states I understand the Advantage Plans have already been canceled. Many doctors and hospitals are trying to figure how to get free of Medicare since the Medicare payments are either delayed, diminished or missing altogether. I still cannot be sure my HMO will be part of Medicare next year.
BUT, back to the main theme of this article: How many FReepers pay $1,200 a year for their medical insurance? Probably some do; likely most do not. I am not complaining about paying for my health care - I voluntarily and happily pay the premium.
Furthermore, if it becomes a matter of saving the dollar from total collapse I would accept the cancellation of Medicare altogether. Just stop charging me $100 a month and send the program into the Bermuda Triangle. I have led a fruitful life. HOWEVER, under Obama's healthcare program, that cannot happen. My Medicare could be cancelled and I could be set with the old Indian squaw by the side of the road to waste away - but I would still have to pay my health care premium in order to provide health care for younger folk.
Would someone who can get through to Rush Limbaugh get these points across to him - if he is really interested - so that people can understand the truth about Medicare - not a bunch of myths and misrepresentations.
Are you claiming that boomers were less likely to vote for Obama than their parents? This is false.
Boomers were just as likely to vote for as against Obama.
I keep saying it over and over: please campaign to cancel the program... instead of wasting my time on this thread.
So then, Bob should support exempting everyone under 65. If he paid into it his whole life, then the money that he paid in should be what supports him, right?
Rush thanks you, I’m sure.
The bottom line is that they average Medicare recipient gets three times more in benefits than they ever paid into the system. Premiums for Medicare Parts B and D (SMI) only cover 25% of the actual costs with the other 75% coming from General Revenues. As indicated above general revenues now cover 45% of the costs for Medicare. That number will continue to grow. The system is unsustainable. Medicare will eventually consume the entire federal budget if not reformed.
Medicare, like SS, is a pay as you go system, i.e., today's workers pay for today's retirees. By 2030 the number of those over 65 will double as one in 5 residents of this country will be 65 or older. In 2030 there will be just two workers for every retiree.
It wasn’t your parents who supported Obama. Again, if Boomers voted like their parents did, Obama would not have been elected. This is simple math.
Please campaign to cancel the program... I don't mind.
Judging from your responses on this thread, you are whining about (allegedly) being called "ungrateful" for taking my money. I'll simply note that you are grateful and continue to pay you more.
“Medicare recipient gets three times more in benefits than they ever paid into the system.”
Preach it Bro!
Nicely put.
Which is interesting, because we have a “Boomer parent” on this very thread voting to redistribute my wealth.
Thank you... I have no idea what others pay. As I keep saying, anyone who thinks Medicare is a give-away: please campaign to cancel the program - as long as you don't continue to charge me for it. I don't mind.
I’m glad that I got pay for 15 years worth of your medicare. It won’t be there when I retire.
But what Bob’s generation paid in is only a fraction of what their benefits are costing.
Medicare Part A has been in the red from day one: there are NO premiums for Part A.
The only people who "pay nothing" are those who are destitute.
If your employer pays 100% of your coverage, then you are creating enough value to your employer so that he/she is willing to pay 100% of your coverage. Regardless of which column in your employer's payroll spreadsheet holds your healthcare expense, it is the employee who is creating the value that is used to pay for the healthcare coverage. The cost of employee healthcare is part of the cost of having employees. If employees do not provide sufficient value to cover the cost of employment, the employees are eliminated. Therefore it is the employee that is "paying" for 100% of their coverage by creating the value that gets it paid.
At least in the private sector.
Get over it.
The baby boomer generation should be called the locust generation. They will devour everything in site and move on. Each institution they pass through the destroy — Families, School, universities, churches, politics, courts, and they are just beginning with Medicare and Social Security.
What kind of nonsense is that?
Then - as I keep saying over and over again on this thread - campaign to end the Medicare program... I do not mind... Oh, and don't charge me for it after cancelling it.
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