The Only Cut in Trump's Budget is to Medicare. Why?

It's a tiny cut, a paltry 1.8%, but it is a cut.
Here is the budget proposal (in all of it's glory) from the DJT whitehouse link. The actual data tables start on page 25. All categories show a YoY 2017/18 increase except medicare, but that is made up for in the 2019 budget (this is likely due to election year, to shore up the elderly vote).

Medicare gets a $11B decrease
Medicaid gets a $26B increase
Social Sec. gets a $59B increase
Defense gets a $49B increase

Interestingly, we have been spending the same amount of money on old people healthcare (medicare) as we do on the entirety of defense. A mere 15% of the country is over 65. Let the costs/benefit of that sink in. I'm not saying it's not a worthy goal, I'm just saying look at how huge that cost is. Is there a better way?

Yes, other individual programs are being restructured/done away with/replaced, but overall this budget spends more money on everything than BHO did in 2016 (save it be medicare).
Sadly the deficit is only cut in half (by the end of Trump's two terms he would have accrued a little over $4T in debt), unless of course Trump is right and growth takes off, spurring an increase in receipts.

IMO, what trump did is bold and dumb. Who else has had the cojones to actually cut medicare (not future spending)? No one. Not one president (that I could find) actually cut the medicare budget. But it's a stupid thing to do. He should have frozen it rather than giving the media this bullet. I mean, 2019 makes up for the difference and then some, so what was the gain?

You hit it on the head with Medicare, why are they paying that much out. The cost of healthcare for the older people is going insane. On top of those costs, add people's deductibles and consider part B payments made in by seniors.

We got something major wrong in this country, our medical costs should not be so high and the number of sick people should not be so high. Back in the sixties and seventies, healthcare was not very high, you could stay in the hospital for a week for three hundred bucks and it included your aspirins. They kept people in there to recover. Now the prices are super high and you don't even stay in the hospital very often after surgery. People were not that sick back then, guys were healthy then dropped dead as soon as they retired. Women were healthier too, cancer was rare, but if you got it it oftenresulted in dying. Now, lots of people get cancer and are treated, I want to go back to the days when getting cancer was rare. People died of liver problems those days, lots of people drank too much. And cancer was not common and many people smoked cigarettes. The main kind of cancer back then was lung, but now all cancers add up to double the lung cancers back then.

This raising cost of healthcare is unsustainable, there are too many people dependent on jobs in the medical field.

a reply to: rickymouse

I really can't tell you why costs have spiraled. Part of me thinks it's insurance (like federalized student loans/guarantees increased tuition costs). That likely makes up a portion of it but even insurance is getting too expensive which should cause people to drop it and keep prices under control. I've seen the balance sheets of a few (for profit) hospitals and they're not making a killing, their margins are very thin. Prescription drugs are pretty pricey but they only get their patents for a few years so I'm not sure how you would incentivize cheaper drugs without killing incentive to invent better ones.

Maybe it's just death by a thousand cuts and it's a huge number of small expenses that skyrockets costs.

a reply to: Dfairlite

Insurance companies period are a middle man that does NOT preform a medical function . Yet they are taking like .30 off the top of every dollar spent on health care..


They are paper pushers taking a bigger cut of the pie than ANYONE else who actually performs a medical service.

Of course we are paying too much.. that is why every modern country on the planet has gotten rid of them..


Health care CANNOT take care of everyone AND make a profit..

Insurance companies don't make money off most of their customers.. they make it off those who buy a policy and never use it, or that they deny coverage to.

a reply to: JoshuaCox

Health care for profit is bound to leave some out in the cold.

Can you imagine if we did the same with the Police and Fire Departments?

Unless you have insurance, no response from the police or fire?

Health care profiteers will end up leaving people on the streets to die.

a reply to: D8Tee

Right so take out the "for Profit" aspect of it then. Also remove the Insurance Companies who really aren't even part of the process of health care. They are simply the middle men who skim off the top of the transaction between people and their healthcare. They are just the gatekeepers. Get rid of them completely.

a reply to: D8Tee

Health care for profit is bound to leave some out in the cold.

Not true at all. Do you know which hospitals make the most profit? Non-profits. Look it up.

Can you imagine if we did the same with the Police and Fire Departments?

We do. Some local governments don't provide these services and citizens have to pay another city to get service from them, otherwise they get no service.

Health care profiteers will end up leaving people on the streets to die.

Riiiiiiight, because only government cares about people!!!! LOL

a reply to: mOjOm

So you're saying that we should all just pay our own medical bills? Agreed.

a reply to: Dfairlite

Each person on their own won't work either. Most people would never make it. All it takes is one good injury or something to ruin a person financially where they may never recover as well.

But simply having everyone put a little into one pool that we can all share from makes the most sense. Some will use it more than others, but everyone will end up using it at some point. But it spreads the cost out making it easy on everyone instead of super heavy on some and very light on others.

Basically like insurance but a more simple universal form of it.

a reply to: Dfairlite

There's not any Canadians declaring bankruptcy due to medical bills.

Isn't it like one of the leading causes of bankruptcy in Merica?

a reply to: JoshuaCox

Insurance companies period are a middle man that does NOT preform a medical function . Yet they are taking like .30 off the top of every dollar spent on health care..

LOL they wish their margins were 30%. They're actually less than 5%. Take a look at antherm's financials LINK. Their margin is 3.48%. but why let facts get in the way?

They are paper pushers taking a bigger cut of the pie than ANYONE else who actually performs a medical service.

That's not true either. Depending on where you go for care the doctor and/or hospital are making far more than the insurance company.

Health care CANNOT take care of everyone AND make a profit..

What is this even supposed to mean? Should doctors work for free then?

Insurance companies don't make money off most of their customers.. they make it off those who buy a policy and never use it, or that they deny coverage to.

But you started off saying they take 30%?????

originally posted by: Dfairlite
a reply to: D8Tee

Health care for profit is bound to leave some out in the cold.

Not true at all. Do you know which hospitals make the most profit? Non-profits. Look it up.

I did look it up. Non-profit means they do not make the most profit.

a reply to: mOjOm

LOL do you realize the insanity of this???

Who is uninsured right now, do you know?

a reply to: dfnj2015

Sure, they don't call it a profit, they call it a surplus. But either way they're making more than their costs.

Seven of the top ten most profitable hospitals are non-profits.

a reply to: D8Tee

It sure is, but so is divorce. Should we mandate no divorces as well?

originally posted by: Dfairlite
a reply to: mOjOm

LOL do you realize the insanity of this???

Who is uninsured right now, do you know?

me

Why are we paying for Medicaid, I don't use it, is not an entitlement and is not a permanent insurance, Medicaid was an emergency fund for the very poor.

Obama turned Medicaid under Obama care into an insurance for the poor that could not be mandated.

At the expenses of the states tax payers to deal with when the federal government stop giving funds to the states that expanded the program on 2018, My state didn't even got in the bandwagon and kept their own in state insurance for the poor, because it wasn't worth it.

I disagree with increasing Medicaid.

Get the profit making out of healthcare and you'd solve the problem.

No private companies making vast profits out of ripping off sick people?

Make the whole sector not-for-profit.

a reply to: brutus61

Why aren't you following the law?

a reply to: Painterz

Are you going to go to school for 10 years, do a 4 year residency and take on hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt (or pay that out of your bank account as you go) so that you can work "not for profit"?