The Search is Over

[amanda choate]

Rep. Ryan has been chosen and we have finally have a national candidate who will end Medicare. Hallelujah!
Once and for all we can end this underfunded boondoggle.

[Helen]

Yes, read it, may not agree.  So, you want everyone off the gravy train? That is going to have to include the poor too.  Everyone is everyone.  Not fair, to use your term, to pass a bill of any kind to take money (pay into) from a person who won't enjoy the benefit everyone else does.

Based on your argument, it's not moral to ask the hard working guy who saved and invested (knowing 30 years ago the system was alreay failing and planned ahead) to pay in to any system for the guy not willing to get off their butt and do it themselves. 

As I said, we're broke. It may be painful, but something has to change with Medicare, SSI and Medicaid/Welfare.   There's no more money.   So, sure.  Let's get EVERYONE off the train...  How exactly will Obama even begin that process?  He won't.  He is putting as many on the dole as he can, as fast as he can...

[amanda choate]

Helen, did you not read my post? The average recipient TODAY receives $350,000 more in coverage than they paid in. There are 48 million such people TODAY! Roughly for today's recipients only, that is 16.8 trillion dollars. Who pays that bill Helen? That bill alone is equal to all the debt we have acquired throughout our nation's history. When someone talks about cutting $781 billion from Medicare costs I am unimpressed.

So either vote for people who say we all have to pay, including seniors, or we are cutting the whole thing off. It isn't fair to pass that bill onto people who will not enjoy the benefit from their contribution. This isn't a one time thing. We always knew this bill was coming,

Ryan has no guts Helen or he would tell everyone to get their butts off the government gravy train. That would be gutsy. He is a panderer.

[Helen]

Oh, and Amanda, I am sure you realize the majority of those on Medicare also carry very expensive supplemental insurance as Medicare doesn't pay for everything?   

[Helen]

If something is not done now, Medicare is going to end in 12 years, with or without a new president. 

At least Ryan has enough guts to say it, to come up with alternative plans and offer new ideas within some kind of budgetary restraints.. It seems he is trying to give people choices instead of forcing everyone who works to pay into a dying system thru their paychecks..

Of course, the system would be healthier if all the politicians hadn't raid the "lockbox" for all the other entitlement programs.   We're broke. It may be painful, but something has to change with Medicare, SSI and Medicaid/Welfare.   There's no more money.  The insanity needs to stop. 

[Barry Lee Phillips]

You are preaching to the wrong person.  I have in the past and I am now in the present paying for Medicare.  Did you not read my post?  I am trapped in the system and until the system changes, I have no realistic choices to make.  Don't you understand that?  Yes, I want Medicare to change.  Yes, I want Social Security to change.  Until change happens we both have to deal with the status quo.

Ryan represents the possibility of changing the status quo and I am all for that.  So, in a sense, you and I are on the same side wanting change.  If you don't understand that, then I am wasting my time writing this.

[amanda choate]

One more thing, it is morally wrong for you to ask me to pay for your Medicare and at the same time vote for people who want me to pay for it with no benefit to me. It is either good enough for all, or no one. Do not ask me to use my money to pay your debt and then leave me with nothing. Screw that.

[amanda choate]

Okay here is my deal wth all those who have paid into the system. You will get back everyhing you paid in plus 7%. That seems fair. Go buy your coverage in the free market or spend it on jellybeans, it is not my problem. But then I am off the hook. If like the average Medicare recipient who has been on the teat more than three years, no check for you, you have already exceeded your contributions.
You cannot be forced out of the company policy, if your company did that to you, they broke the law. But what idiot would buy insurance when they could get it for free. And the reason insurance is expensive when you are old is simple, you are older, you get ill easy, you get cancer for no apparent reason, you have cardio-pulminary issues, you fall and break your hips. Your teeth fall out and you get sick and die. And all that stuff costs a lot of cash to treat.

[Barry Lee Phillips]

Amanda,

I am 70 years old.  I still work full time and I am still paying federal income tax, social security tax, and the medicare tax.  Yes, I am a senior who is still paying that bill!

You don't understand that if and when you reach 65 and if you happen to still be employed, most employers will force you off the company medical insurance and boot you into Medicare whether you want it or not. 

One of the main reasons that medical care is so expensive is because of government regulation and government bureaucracy and the fact that government intervention has choked off any possibility of free market competition for medical dollars.  That needs to change and yes, Medicare needs to change as well.  Ditto for Social Security.

At least the Ryan plan is a start in the right direction for change.  It's not perfect and can be improved.  But at this stage you cannot throw the baby out with the bath water.

[amanda choate]

Lee and William, the average Medicare recipient today uses $350,000 more in services than they paid for. Today there are 48 million people on Medicare. Who pays that bill?

Me and my children. Those are the facts.

So pardon the f out of me if I mind paying for services that will never be afforded me in any meaningful way while you get it for next to nothing. The average welfare recipient receives less than a tenth of that amount over the course of their lifetime and we think they are the dregs of world.

I am not saying to end Medicare, in fact anyone who receives it today and tyhinks it is a good thing should make sure that those people paying for them are given something in return. To think that seniors would vote to end Medicare after they use it all up, well that is very depressing.  Moreso, how cynical of a politician to ask for a senior's vote on the fact that they will have Medicare but no one after will. Either find a way to pay for Medicare, or end it today. Sorry about that if you rely on it, but it isn't my problem and don't you try to make it my problem, That is liberty to me. What would Ayn Rand say?

[William T. Wright]

Even those that are 55 and under will still have a choice, under the Ryan plan.

You get to chose a new individual plan, similar to a 401 K, or voucher program, or you can opt to stay on traditional SS and Medicare.

What's all the fuss about?

Tom Wright