Put your “thank you note” in a time capsule. It will be your grandchildren and great-grandchildren who will be paying off this federal debt for decades to come. I am sure they will enjoy the irony of that IOU.

Ask yourself. If Medicare is 85 trillion dollars unfunded now, for 50 million people, how and the Hell are you going to fund it for 300 million.

If you think the solution to funding Medicare is to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan, you are correct. But you’re also going to have to pull out of transportation and education and housing and infrastructure and national defense and environment and every other dollar that your government spends. Why?

Because funding Medicare in the future, under current rules would require cutting 97% of all current federal liabilities.

That’s right. 97%.

Are you ready for that?

The big problem with health care reform in Massachusetts is that they decided to expand coverage first, then deal with cost containment later. “Later” hasn’t arrived and our legislators seem to have completely forgotten that part of their unfinished assignment. This is what concerns me about federal health care reform: they’re apparently following the same playbook, looking to expand coverage first and worry about costs later. We all know that “later” means “never” in government-speak.

You’re not welcome. It will not be there when it’s my turn. The Ponzi scheme can no longer be hidden. Thanks for nothing.

christophil, thanks for the link. Sometimes I wonder. The Institute of Medicine ought to add the word “prestigious” between “The” and “Institute”. I’ve yet to see a reporter write a column without putting it there.

The author is happy with Medicare bcs with medicare there are winners and losers. She just happens to be on the winning side.
What about drs? If they bill $100 for a service, Medicare likely says the rate should be $70 and then pays 80% or $56 to the dr.

Most likely the dr is out the $44 unless she has some supplemental coverage – which many do not. If she does, then the dr get $14 more and is still out the $30.

Medicare is simply a form of price controls – unfair to drs and hospitals – and ultimately not good for society. There are consequences to price controls – has anybody noticed there are fewer PCPs around? This is in part bcs they are the first line in dealing with Medicare and young drs with large loans to repay do not need the heavy hand of price controls, huge paperwork problems, etc. So they are opting out of being a PCP.

Btw, approx 20% of drs are not taking new Medicare patients. Maybe the author should ask herself, Why?

(Disclaimer: I pay Massachusetts taxes, but do not qualify for any of the Massachusetts Health Care provisions).