As I've already said, the government already proved that it can't run Medicare effectively. Medicare has a total of 47 million enrollees currently, which is about 15% of the total population. That's less than the population of the United Kingdom, but more than Canada and Australia. If we can't run Medicare efficiently and without it being insolvent, what makes people think that we can multiply that by a magnitude of nearly 7, and expect it to run better than Medicare does currently. Expanding something means that the inherent inefficiencies will simply be exacerbated, most likely to a degree far worse than it is currently. Or we could start from scratch, but chances are we'd be pulling ideas and concepts from the existing Medicare system and implementing them into whatever new system is put in place to replace it. If we can't run Medicare, how can we run anything else?
Medicare is not insolvent, Retro. You keep saying it, but it's not true. Where's your documentation to prove your claim? Anyone can locate any number of opinion pieces that make the claim that "Medicare will be insolvent by such & such date".
You want to talk about ineffeciencies? While Medicare costs increased 400% from 1969 to 2009 -- there was a
700% increase in insurance rates charged by private insurance companies.
The right wing establishment has been predicting the demise of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security since my earliest political memory. I began listening to talk radio and this type of rhetoric in 1994, when you were about 11 years old retro. Neither is insolvent as yet - just more dire predictions that have yet to come true, but is parroted repeatedly as fact.
Retro, I know it pisses you off that I refute your bullshit talking points, but I was a conservobot like you when you were just a snot nosed little kid - not that you've matured much since. But anyway, here's a little history for you on the ongoing demise of Medicare:
Chicago Tribune July 2, 1969: The Medicare hospital trust fund faces bankruptcy by 1976 and taxes must either be raised or benefits reduced the senate finance committee was told today.
New York Times July 7, 1981: Medicare payroll taxes already imposed by Congress, including two increases scheduled for 1985 and 1986, will only be able to keep the hospital insurance system solvent for eight to 10 more years, three Cabinet officers informed Congress. Even under the Reagan Administration's highly optimistic economic projections, the fund will be bankrupt before 2000, the three said.
Washington Post,March 6, 1983: Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici warned the nation's governors the other day, "Medicare can be bankrupt in 2 1/2 years," unless some way is found to put the brakes on its burgeoning costs.
Chicago Tribune: June 25, 1983: Medicare is in danger of bankruptcy as early as 1986, the system’s trustees declared Friday.
Chicago Tribune, March 10 1984: To avert Medicare’s expected insolvency, a federal advisory council proposed Friday raising the eligibility age to 67, taxing employer paid health insurance benefits and boosting the tax on alcohol and tobacco… the Congressional Budget Office said Medicare may be insolvent in 1989
New York Times, January 20, 1985: In the last few years, when it appeared that the Medicare trust fund would run out of money in 1987-89... But the need seemed less urgent after the Congressional Budget Office issued new estimates last September indicating that the Medicare trust fund would not go bankrupt until 1994.
Chicago Tribune February 6, 1985: Medicare is still expected to go bankrupt in 1991, and a new flood of red tape is not helping America's hospitals.
New York Times, March 27, 1985: Reagan Administration officials said tonight that new projections showed the Medicare trust fund would not go bankrupt until late in 1990's.
Chicago Tribune, Nov. 17 1985: Last spring, the government estimated that the Medicare trust fund would run out of money by 1998. Given less optimistic assumptions about the economy, it could happen as soon as 1992
Washington Post, April 1, 1986: The Medicare hospital insurance program faces bankruptcy by 1996, two years earlier than projected last year.
Chicago Tribune, June 29, 1986: Dr. Jerald Schenken of Omaha, an AMA trustee, said the doctors have worked for more than two years on formulating the plan, because they fear the current Medicare system will go bankrupt by the end of the century.
New York Times, May 22, 1988: Reflecting the view of the Reagan Administration, Dr. William L. Roper, the head of the Federal Medicare and Medicaid agency, said, ''With the Medicare Trust Fund expected to go insolvent shortly after 2000, it is hard for us to sign on for a major expansion of the Medicare program beyond the catastrophic care bill.''
New York Times, January 22, 1989: The fund that pays all Government reimbursement for hospital care of Medicare patients is projected to become insolvent in the next decade or so.
Washington Post May 4, 1990: Control of health costs is considered by many experts to be the number one health problem in the United States. Such costs are expected to bankrupt Medicare by the year 2003.
Washington Post December 13, 1994: The trust fund that finances Medicare is projected to become insolvent in the year 2001
Los Angeles Times May 31, 1995: For weeks, Republicans have been talking about a report that warns that Medicare is in danger of going bankrupt in the year 2002.
Chicago Tribune April 25, 1997: Medicare trustees said Thursday that the program providing health care to more than 38 million senior citizens is still headed for bankruptcy in 2001.
Chicago Tribune, January 7, 1999: [The National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare] was created in 1997 to deal with Medicare's projected bankruptcy in 2008.
