This was the title of the OpEd in Thursday's San Diego Union Tribune. I would give you the link for the article, except for it's not in their online version of the paper due to license restrictions. But, I will give you the link from the exact same article from the home paper of the author, Robert J. Samuelson, The Washington Post.
For OpEds, whether from syndicates or individuals, as for letters to the editors, the newspapers usually retain the right to compose their own headlines. WaPo's was, "Health 'reform' that burdens our young." I suspect that my local San Diego paper, struggling for readers in this mostly conservative region decided to throw the audience some red meat in composing this headline. Samuelson's article was confrontational, but the local papers headline made it even more so.
Sameulson's letter started off with a blast to us old timers:
One of our long-running political stories is the economic assault on the young by the old. We have become a society that invests in its past and disfavors the future. This makes no sense for the nation, but as politics it makes complete sense. The elderly and near elderly are better organized, focus obsessively on their government benefits and seem deserving.
He gives a long litany of how the current reform will benefit seniors and those on Medicare, and let me say most of this is accurate. He ends with this:
It's true that premiums for older people would be higher. But this might have a silver lining: Facing their true health costs, older Americans might become more eager to control spending.
Here's the letter that I wrote them, actually too long for a letter to the editor, but I had to say what I had to say. I wrote almost the same letter to both papers, so we shall see whether either of them pick it up.
To the editor:
Re: Grandma pickpocketing the young
As a proclamation of the official beginning of the United States Generational Civil War, I would say it's good to have this out in the open, with the caveat that the unfortunate accusational tone, "economic assault on the young by the old" marks the low point of the dialog rather than setting a standard.
First a correction of this inclusion of "Medicaid (as) primarily dedicated to the elderly." Not really...in principle or in actuality. Unlike Medicare, created to address the lack of minimal health care of those beyond working age in a system that merged health insurance with employment; Medicaid was, and still is, designed to aid those in poverty, old and young alike.
Samuelson's ad hominem attack on an entire generation distorts the serious issues that must be addressed by comprehensive health care reform. What he describes exists partly because of the demographic time bomb, that the birth rate in the early second half of the last century has now created an imbalance between beneficiaries and contributors to Medicare and Social Security.
While it has been clear for decades that Medicare was on the road to insolvency, our political system refused, or was unable, to tackle the inefficiencies and inequities of our massive powerful Medical-Industrial complex, that has resulted in health care being unaffordable for so many Americans of all ages. Sadly, given the evidence of the developing legislation pending in congress, it still lacks this ability.
As someone approaching 70, the very last thing I want for myself or for my cohorts is a disproportional share of the health care pie,.....
Note: The preceding was the introduction, the first chapter, the first act of a two act play. To the person, probably an entry level journalism grad, at the struggling Union Tribune, it was not a part of a whole, but some more gray text that she is deluges with. So, she cut it right here, to fit the page, and only the above was included in the publication. You can read it, third letter down, here.
The following, the part of my submission which is my answer to the introduction is only available here, to the few who value it. What to me are gems of wisdom, to most, including this letters editor, is so much fungible coal. Just another one of those hundreds of emails she has to sort through each day. And after all, she did put half of it in the paper, so what's my beef.
......yet the current House passed bill..... unmentioned by Mr. Samuelson, would actually place those on Medicare closer to the back of the new longer line of subsidized claimants for a fixed supply of medical care. Somehow the powerful "better organized" seniors couldn't prevent Medicaid from raising their payment to primary doctors to be equal to Medicare, and the proposed private option from being able to pay more than they Medicare will to providers.
This reform bill, is primarily a rearranging the order by which those in desperate straits will board the life boats of health care, without increasing the number of seats. Those writing this bill choose to fund token "demonstration projects" that could, perhaps in decades, actually provide the additional capacity to negate needing to decide who gets care and who goes without. Even in the clause that acknowledges an effective method to prevent one excess of malpractice, objective certificates of merit being required before court access, was only encouraged rather than required.
Ultimately for health care in America ever to be affordable, available enough to care for old and young alike, radical changes are necessary. This means, as much as many may object, actually putting government between a patient and his or her doctor to prevent futile treatment that saps resources that could be used to meaningfully prolong life.
Far from being "death panels" such entities would ensure the existence of a health care system that can actually enhance and save lives. These "Life Panels" are only one thing among other shocking changes to what we have become used to that can diffuse the battle between young and old, male and female, rich and poor, healthy and sick....that is inevitable by not tackling the supply side of health care.
Blaming our current health care problem on "Grandma," or any single industry or profession is as silly as it is destructive. We have a health care complex, that is as unique as our own history as a country. Creation of false villains is no substitute for addressing this social-political issue that is ingrained in who we are as a society, and will only be improved by accepting the pain of major surgery to our body politic.
My Name
I really liked the penultimate paragraph that I bold faced. Shame she didn't take the last half instead of the first.