Posted on 08/08/2014 12:56:42 PM PDT by Kaslin
Next week I'm scheduled for a cervical spinal fusion that costs upward of $100,000, but I won't be paying for it. Like 50 million other Medicare recipients, I will receive the medical care I need more or less free of charge thanks to Medicare. It's something most seniors take for granted -- a benefit we believe we're entitled to because, after all, we paid Medicare taxes all our working lives. But as it happens, those taxes aren't nearly enough to pay for the benefits we receive from the system -- at least for most of us. Despite the fact that I still work and pay hefty Medicare taxes, I am likely to become one of those people who becomes a drain on the system if I live long enough (my mother died at 90, my grandmother at 95).
Medicare is fast becoming unsustainable, especially as baby boomers like me enter the system. We may be living longer and healthier lives, but it's costing taxpayers more than we can afford unless something changes. Debate in Washington has centered on fixes that are likely to be painful: lower benefits and restrict procedures; raise the age of eligibility; or substantially increase taxes to pay for the system. But a new idea emerged this week from a study that shows that one demographic group in our population actually takes less out than they contribute: immigrants. Allow more people to immigrate here, and we keep Medicare solvent longer.
The study, "Staying Covered: How Immigrants Prolonged the Solvency of One of Medicare's Key Trust Funds and Subsidized Care for U.S. Seniors," demonstrates how it might work. Prepared for the Partnership for a New American Economy by Dr. Leah Zallman, an instructor at Harvard Medical School, the study shows that immigrants contribute billions more in Medicare taxes than they take out of the system.
Zallman looked at data from the Current Population Survey and the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey for the years 1996-2011. She found that in that period, immigrants contributed $182.4 billion more to Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund than they used in benefits. In 11 of the 16 years examined, immigrants contributed $10 billion more each of those years than they took out.
The reasons are largely demographic: Immigrants are younger and more likely to be of working age than the native-born population, and some older immigrants don't satisfy the requirements to participate in Medicare. In order to draw benefits, recipients must have worked and paid Medicare taxes for 40 quarters. As for illegal immigrants -- many of whom, contrary to popular myth, pay taxes, including Medicare -- they likely will not ever be able to draw benefits because they have used false Social Security numbers.
But even those immigrants who receive Medicare apparently use fewer benefits than the native-born, according to Zallman's analysis. Medicare's Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund pays for doctor's visits, lab tests and preventive care for Medicare patients, and when the SMI doesn't have sufficient funds, Congress must appropriate additional money to fully fund benefits. According to her calculations, immigrants took an average of $776 in 2011 from the SMI trust fund, and non-citizen immigrants took even less, around $330, while the U.S.-born took $951. In only one area did immigrant spending exceed that of the native-born: Home health-care agencies received more for immigrants' care than for the U.S.-born.
It's hard to know precisely why immigrants use fewer health services. Some studies suggest that immigrants are less likely to engage in unhealthy habits like smoking, drinking and using illegal drugs, and their longevity rates reflect healthier lifestyles. But whatever the reason, it's clear that immigrants improve the health profile of the population. And now, it turns out, they are helping pay the freight for the rest of us, as well.
So next week when I check out of the hospital, in addition to thanking my doctors (both immigrants, by the way), I'll thank those millions of immigrants whose excess contributions helped pay for my stay. If we want to solve the looming Medicare crisis, maybe inviting more immigrants here should be part of the solution.
What a crock of Bolshevik! These "people" get tax refunds, suck at the teat of government for health care, wic, aid to dependent families, food stamps, housing, etc. There are no excess contributions from them, there is only the great sucking sound of legal residents and Americans tax dollars pouring into their pocket, plus the added benefit of their sending billions of dollars out of the American economy and into the mexican and central american economies.
This person is so screwed up, it’s tough to imagine them owning a pencil, much less knowing how to use one. As for a computer, it would be hard to believe they could scrape together enough funds to buy one.
Just mind-numbingly stupid...
Check that last name out too. These folks would sell 320 million citizens out for one illegal alien. Blood is thicker than anything else to these people.
Again with the conflating of legal immigrants with illegal immigrants! These people kill me! If we want to raise the immigration quotas for such dubious goals (saving entitlements) then we can have that debate. Right after we seal & secure the borders!
>>> But a new idea emerged this week from a study that shows that one demographic group in our population actually takes less out than they contribute: immigrants. Allow more people to immigrate here, and we keep Medicare solvent longer.
How is that a “new idea”?
Hasn’t Europe mostly gone on board with the importing more immigrants to help pay for their aging populace at least two decades now?
That didn’t turn out too well.
Complete bull! Go to any hospital and see who’s in the waiting room. Profile, yes I said PROFILE! These mfrs drain more money from the Boomers pre-paid Medicare by trillions by the time their 40. Meanwhile, we still pay for insurance on top! Fing BS!
****Next week I’m scheduled for a cervical spinal fusion that costs upward of $100,000, but I won’t be paying for it. Like 50 million other Medicare recipients, I will receive the medical care I need more or less free of charge thanks to Medicare.**** Linda Chavez
First of all those legal-immigrant surgeons will probably get paid about $5,000 @80% or $4,000 from Medicare “Insurance”.
Insurance coverage and premiums should be based on actuarial tables for which all working/employed participants pay those mandatory taxes. Medicare is going broke because it is paying for people who would be otherwise ineligible under true insurance coverage.
Medigap premiums, or secondary coverage is another expense for retirees, but picks up expenses not paid under Medicare i.e. deductibles and the 20% coinsurance.
Nothing is FREE and Obamacare is just Medicare on steroids.
Well, I know a lot of people like myself, too-we paid into that program-I still pay since I work-but we don’t run to doctors just because we think we paid for it-I live a natural lifestyle myself-a personal choice, and a healthy one. Also, it isn’t totally free for anyone-at least $100 bucks is deducted from your social security forever for a premium whether you ever use medicare or not...
Think about this-if you don’t have accidents or get a bunch of tickets, your auto insurance probably lowers your premium or deductible-mine does. What if the same were true of medicare and all health insurance? Talk about a motivation to stop sucking up benefits for no good reason...
And you can check out my last name, too-I’m one of “those people”-of Hispanic ancestry and your remark about blood is misleading-blood does not trump legality for most of us when it comes to mojados...
How about we charge the countries the illegals come from for their healthcare, thus lowering the cost for the rest of us citizens????
She paid into a Ponzii scheme and now she figures she is “too big to fail”....
Cry me a damned river...
This is one of the weakest defenses of the invasion yet.
News flash Medicare recipients paid into medicare and are still paying in, through their social security. I know because I am senior citizen on Social security and medicare. The premium gets deducted from my social security check
FWIW, Medicare Part A is free if you’re qualified. Parts B and D are optional and that’s what is paid for.
Thank you for also pointing out that none of medicare is “free”, and the author of the article is misleading readers-Medicaid, which is what most illegals are seeking here is pretty much free-every taxpayer pays for that, too-everyone but the mostly able-bodied recipients, who have paid nothing...
As long as government is going to deduct Medicare premiums involuntarily from everyone’s paychecks and SS checks, it should be more income based than it is, and voluntary-people like the author obviously can afford her own insurance, and even though I have a modest income, I’d prefer to have my own choice, since I’m paying anyway...
Get real
Yes, I know-the point is that the author makes it sound as though it is all free, free, free which is not the case.
Thank you, too-it isn’t all free...
Linda Chavez is chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a non-profit public policy research organization in Sterling, Va. Linda Chavez also writes a weekly syndicated column that appears in newspapers across the country, is a political analyst for FOX News Channel, and hosts a syndicated, daily radio show on Liberty Broadcasting. Chavez authored “Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation” (Basic Books, 1991), which the Denver Post described as a book that “should explode the stereotypes about Hispanics that have clouded the minds of patronizing liberals and xenophobic conservatives alike.” National Review describes Linda Chavez’s newest work, “An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal” (Basic Books 2002), as a “brilliant, provocative, and moving book.” In 2000, Linda Chavez was honored by the Library of Congress as a “Living Legend” for her contributions to America’s cultural and historical legacy. In January 2001, Linda Chavez was President George W. Bush’s nominee for Secretary of Labor until Linda Chavez withdrew her name from
consideration.
Linda Chavez has held a number of appointed positions, among them Chairman, National Commission on Migrant Education (1988-1992); White House Director of Public Liaison (1985); Staff Director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1983-1985); and Linda Chavez was a member of the Administrative Conference of the United States (1984-1986). Linda Chavez was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Maryland in 1986. In 1992, Linda Chavez was elected by the United Nations’ Human Rights Commission to serve a four-year term as U.S. Expert to the U.N. Sub-commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.
Linda Chavez was also editor of the prize-winning quarterly journal American Educator (1977-1983), published by the American Federation of Teachers, where Linda Chavez also served as assistant to AFT president Al Shanker (1982-1983) and assistant director of legislation (1975-1977).
Linda Chavez serves on the Board of Directors of ABM Industries Linda Chavez is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and was Co-Chair of the Council’s Committee on Diversity (1998-2000).
Linda Chavez was born in Albuquerque, N.M., on June 17, 1947, received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Colorado in 1970. Linda Chavez is married and is the mother of three sons. Linda Chavez currently lives in Reston, Va.
...
She.Never.Stops.
As for immigrants leading a healthier lifestyle than us by not smoking, drinking, and doing drugs....she didn’t mention diet, did she? Most of the Mexicans I see in my Arizona town are downright obese, which can often lead to type 2 diabetes. Healthier my a$$.
So she basically wants us to use immigrants to our advantage, much like she did with her illegal housekeeper. I think Linda needs to be reminded that slavery was outlawed about 150 years ago.
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