“...The 107 million people on Medicaid or Medicare in 2013 will increase to 135 million by 2018...”
Maybe. But it should be noted that Medicaid (pure welfare) and Medicare (funded by its truly eligible users) are VERY different things. Obama is robbing Medicare (reducing payments to medical industry) to pay for the pure welfare of Medicaid (to buy votes) to cover those that PAY NOTHING. Medicare, funded by decades of working people being taxed for it, and continuing to be funded by retired folks who use it (it is not free), was working pretty well until Obamacare went into effect.
This horror story has to end.
Since Medicare went into deficit in 1986, it has been funded by printing money and by borrowing from China. Medicare "truly eligible users" currently fund 13% of payouts, the rest is welfare.
“But it should be noted that Medicaid (pure welfare) and Medicare (funded by its truly eligible users) are VERY different things”
Medicare is not completely funded by its truly eligible users. Not even close. So from a taxpayers perspective, there isn’t much difference between a Medicaid user and a Medicare user - sorry to burst your bubble.
We are going to “single payer” because there is no way Medicare and Medicaid “cost shifting” to private insurers can occur with such high numbers of complete freeloaders (Medicaid), or mostly freeloaders (Medicare).