Come on DDfD , you are very smart and knowledgeable too hanging around me :) but I will answer anyway since this topic gets me going like Obama-care did, You know medicare is ALREADY broke and being paid by the Federal reserve printing money. You know a private citizen cannot do that. So many (age matters) seniors themselves will still be better off with with death panels than being thrown into the alley when paralyzed by that stroke if they dont have a huge amount of savings.
Is everyone else better off in that case? You know the answer to that, I dont have to tell you. But because of that Ryan has to sell a plan of helping people when they are young by abandoning them when they get old which his plan really does, that is a tough sell.
My # 1 issue is tell the truth about both scenarios. And one important truth is no elected president of either party would ever sign this particular proposal into law if it got that far. That is the bottom line, and it is why I suggested a more realistic alternative that would not have sunk the R party before it started.
Regarding your excellent “analogy” of being thrown over the side of the boat with only ten years to prepare.
I’ll have a bit more time than that...but I tell you, it is REALLY ticking me off. I have ALWAYS had private health insurance...my parents taught me that it was the responsible thing to do, so I purchased it even when I couldn’t afford it, beginning when I took my very first job out of College.
I figured it out one time; I have paid well in excess of $100,000 for my insurance (while using virtually no services)...and that’s just MY portion. Of course I have paid the Medicare Tax since my first job at age 17. Part of the idea of giving up this money during your healthy earning years, is that when you need the services as declining health sets in, said service will be there for you.
Instead, it now appears that every deadbeat in the Country, both legal and illegal has been, and will continue to be cared for, while those of us who have paid the bills for all of these years will be left destitute.
I am actually leaning towards a more sinister motive (not to sound too tin-foil-hattish). I cannot really think of a better way to relieve the terminally stubborn and hard-working middle class of its remaining assets, than to do something like this.
I have written a rather snarky “marketing plan” that deals with the issue from that point of view. You would probably enjoy it.