I beg to differ. Seniors spend more of their own money on health care now than they did before Medicare. In other words, the entire amount spent on Medicare has been swallowed by increased costs and, in particular, by squandering enormous sums on unwanted "heroic" interventions that make people die ever more slowly and painfully.
There is only one way to control the cost of health care: have all routine health care paid for over the counter from the patient's own pocket. Everything else serves only to feed either private or public bureaucracy.
One of their proposals is to base payment to doctors and hospitals for outcomes based results. As a former owner of a home health care agency, and not when they were milking the government for air conditioned dog houses, when the reimbursement changed to a HHRG basis, we were given the same amount to treat a patient based on their diagnosis. Since we are sll the same, this worked really well. We got out of that business before we went bankrupt. People, you are NOT ALL ALIKE. Treating you like you are can kill you. This is what their Health Care boils down to: you will get the same basic care for each disease. Anything over and above will not be tried. Once you reach a certain age, you must accept you have lived a good life. If you can survive without any medication or treatment, all the better. IF not, please sign up at one of our Planned Grandparenthood clinics so you can be assisted to die. Unless of course you are a member of congress.
Well this is something for all of us, including public officials, to think about. If seniors spend more on the out of pocket portion of healthcare than they did before Medicare was enacted, you really have to question where all the money Medicare spends is going.
You are spot on, Mr. Locke. For years, Medicare has been a medical dinosaur, eg not allowing arthroscopic surgery for knees BUT paying for total knee replacement. And now, like all dinosaurs, it is going into extinction. It’s just a Ponzi scheme, folks, designed to get our money so the left can play with it. This health care “reform” is nothing more than a new tax, $350 per capita per month, that goes straight to gubmint coffers, never again to see the light of day to pay for real “health” care.