Discussion»Statements»Rosie's Corner» Medicare WORKS. It is a single-payer SUCCESS. Those who are anti-single payer insurance don't want what works. They want what doesn't. Why?
Why didn't it work in VT? Bernie's state. They tried it. It failed in the bluest of blue states. If they could not make a go of it, why would be think the entire country could?
Personally, I do think it could be an OPTION to BUY into Medicare as your insurance. But it should not be mandatory. And I should be able to change my mind and fire them if I want. ...(Go somewhere else and buy my insurance)
Also not all of Medicare is single payer. There are public/private partnerships in Medicare insurance.
I help a friend every year pick his plan. His Medicare Advantage insurance is through a private insurance company. (this is not a supplemental plan...it is his primary Medicare plan)
This post was edited by my2cents at September 16, 2017 11:00 AM MDT
Medicare is funded by many, many people over a very long period of time before those people reach the age of eligibility to use the system. The recipients of Medicare benefits are a much smaller pool of people that will be eligible and for a much shorter period of time that they had to pay into the "fund" if you care to look at it in that manner. (There really is no "fund" per se, no account with your name on it; it's all just tax dollars collected in a particular year being paid out for government obligations on an annual basis.)
Its initial funding structure was based on a number of assumptions: mainly that people would only live about 5-years after they became eligible, and that the "pool" of people paying into that funding pool would be ever expanding to infinity. Well, neither of those "Ponzi-scheme like" assumptions are working out too well. Lifespan expectations are continuing to increase beyond the predicted 70-year actuarially determined number that was used when Medicare was first passed into law and the US worker pool's wages have stagnated while the pool itself is shrinking as a percentage of the population. It's so bad at this point that Medicare is predicted to deplete its funding within the next dozen years.
So it can hardly be called a success. But just like in an airplane crash, even as the aircraft is plummeting to the ground all still seems well right up to the moment that Terra Firma reaches skyward and smites the aircraft.
