Medicare Fact vs. Fiction ?

Medicare Fact vs. Fiction

The author of this article is suggesting that Medicare has been raided time and again by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress and is basically bankrupt.

Both parties playing a role is probably true, however, The Democrats had full committee control of Congress from Jan 2007 until Jan 2011. Why didn't they solve the problems ?

One problem cited is the fact that recent tax revenues have declined and expenses have gone sky high.

It seems the only answer is to get more jobs and thus increase revenues ?

For those who think Medicare is a sacred program that needs to be saved, there are some disturbing truths which are being conveniently swept under the rug in the name of politics.

Medicare now exists in name only. Over the past decade it has morphed into a bloated, bankrupt system that has fooled seniors into thinking that the money they put into the system would be spent on their healthcare needs. In fact, the money that has been put into the Medicare trust fund has been steadily raided by Congress to use for everything except the health of seniors.

Couple this with the fact that there are more people becoming eligible for Medicare while the labor force used to fund it is shrinking, and you have conditions that mix to form the perfect recipe for the Ponzi scheme that it has become.

Facts & Fictions ?

Fiction: Seniors will be able to keep their physician under Obamacare.

Fact: Physicians are opting out of Medicare, both increasing the time it takes to see a physician and breaking long-term relationships between doctors and their patients, affecting the quality of care.

Fiction: The quality of care will improve.

Fact: Under Obamacare (beginning October 1st), hospitals will be fined for readmitting a patient for the same medical problem within 30 days after discharge. This pressure on the hospital will have unintended consequences. It will pit the hospital's financial interests against the patient’s interests. For example, patients with chronic ailments such as heart disease and chronic lung ailments who relapse routinely will be treated as outpatients for as long as possible before admission to avoid fines. Coupled with payments to hospitals that are based on diagnostic related group codes (DRGs) that pay for a certain illness based on the number of days a patient remains in the hospital, there will be a push to avoid inpatient admissions on the one hand, while discharging the patient as quickly as possible on the other. This is a recipe for patients to become more sick before they are admitted making their outcome more tenuous.

Fiction: The patient and their family will make the healthcare decisions.

Fact: Under Obamacare, there are panels empowered to decide what constitutes standards of care (evidence based medicine). These panels will decide how a disease is treated and will encompass everything from what medications will be allowed to be used, to how long it should take for a patient to respond to treatment. The doctor and the patient will have no say and individualized care will be a thing of the past. Since cost will become the overriding factor, palliative care and hospice will be encouraged for those who have diseases which are deemed to be too expensive to treat, or if the prognosis is poor.

The meme of Medicare as the direction which the country should move because it will provide better healthcare is not true. Welcome to the world of Obamacare, where centralized planning applied to medicine places the good of the collective over the rights of the individual -- deemed too ignorant to make his or her own healthcare decisions. In short, the answer to healthcare is not more government intervention. It is less.

Medicare Fact vs. Fiction

Is ObamaCare a Trojan Horse ?

Medicare now exists in name only. Over the past decade it has morphed into a bloated, bankrupt system that has fooled seniors into thinking that the money they put into the system would be spent on their healthcare needs.

True they have been fooled, and anyone who thinks that pittance they pay in actually covers the benefits they get is not living in reality.

Which is why medicare is a ponzi scheme,just like SS, first in first out leave others holding the bag. As more people are introduced, the population age's increases,people live longer there is no possible way to ever cover that.

Then of course those who are on medicaid eventually go on medicare spending most of their lives on social programs.

The smart move would be to combine the programs in to one and that medicare tax is going to have to be increased robbing from the rich will never cover that.

The sad fact neither program should have ever been created it is the 3 card monte-the HUSTLE.

Obama care will add an increased burden of programs that can not already be paid for, and there is only one outcome crash the system to create a single payer.