It is astonishing to me that the most glaring in-your-face problem with Ryan's Medicare fix with its voucher offering of $6000 to help cover insurance premiums has not been discussed.
And that is the fact no profit-seeking health insurance company would ever issue this insurance in the first place. First of all, senior citizens would be money losers for them so why would they want to offer this insurance in the first place. By the age of 65, most of us have pre-existing conditions, joints that will need to be replaced due to normal wear and tear. Cancer, heart disease, diabetes with its co-morbidity of kidney failure, these seniors are total losers for the insurance vultures.
That is the very reason we have had this safety net of Medicare in the first place because this populace is uninsurable by the standards of the profit-takers.
I am also astonished by the attitudes and political statements made by the physicians who are Republican Senators and Representatives who support Paul Ryan's Medicare fix. They know better but somehow have managed to delude themselves about this problem.
Republicans need to be pushed to the brink on Medicare. It cannot be allowed to fail. The truth is Medicare is the answer to the health insurance crisis. It covers those now who cost the most in health care dollars.
If younger healthier Americans were allowed to buy into Medicare with a progressive premium rate according to income, this could bolster the Medicare budget and help with the deficit.
Healthcare providers and hospital CEO's are clearly not happy with the Medicare reimbursements and will put up a robust fight to keep private insurance alive because they depend on the payer mix to make profits. Perhaps a modest rate increase could edge out the profit-takers over time.
I suggest a lowering of the Medicare eligibility age over a period of say, 10 years until all can be covered by Medicare. The business community, both large and small, would actually welcome sensible health care payments for their workers and could be enticed to take up this effort by Federal tax credits.
By having a single-payer system like Medicare in place would then allow for negotiations with drug companies and medical device industries with resulting cost containment.
For decades now, we have been locked into this struggle to provide health care for Americans that makes sense. And now, we are now faced with a deficit of trillions and an upcoming mother of all battles on the budget.
Morally and financially, Medicare-for-all is the best solution for the United States.