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anyone who is planning on SS payments covering 100% of their living expenses needs to seriously review their retirement plan. Or, better yet, hire a financial planner for an hour or two to slap you upside the head with a reality check.
I usually find that those who argue for less government "intrusion" into our private lives, especially with regards to entitlements usually already "have theirs" and so are not too concerned about the rest of us who don't. You may have a gold-plated insurance plan from your employment and if that's the case, you're very fortunate but it usually boils down to which side of the fence one is standing on. Point being, if you're among the people like the couple in the article facing catastrophic health care bills and likely death from lack of good affordable health care (and please don't make out like I'm behaving like a drama queen because this is very real) then you're overwhelmingly likely to be in favor of government single-pay, whereas if you're not and are well-off financially then you're almost certain to be against it. European countries who consistently score among the happiest have the most socialism (cradle-to-grave government entitlements) and thrive much more so than countries like the USA where, under the guise of "pull yourself up by your bootstraps", are among the most miserable in terms of happiness. The Europeans must be doing something right; they're a hell of a lot better off than we are.
I am absolutely in favor of a single-pay system. That said, I agree with most of the posters. I found the article to be disturbing, not because I felt so bad for the couple, but because the couple's situation was inappropriately used to support an otherwise worthy political position. Let me explain:
Wife is on social security disability and is provided Medicare Part A. Wife does not elect to receive Medicare Parts B & D. Presumably she decided to continue with her employer's insurance (at significant cost) because a) the coverage is better and b) her husband and child are covered. However, Husband states he left his career ten years ago because of a chronic autoimmune disorder that prevented him from continuing in his former career. If Husband is unable to work at any job, he should also be receiving Social Security Disability and Medicare. My conclusion is that he is either working another job or he was denied SS Disability because he was found capable of working a job, but not necessarily his old job. Either way, he's not as bad off as he claims. If the couple's income is on the low side (not necessarily below the poverty line) the daughter would receive insurance through a children's insurance program.
So, no, not even this "bleeding heart liberal" poster believes this couple will die, let alone millions of seniors, if Congress decides to increase the Medicare eligibility age. There are other programs to help the uninsured obtain health insurance and I believe these will continue. If not, there are community clinics that will continue to provide services on a sliding scale. It will all work out. You just need a little faith.
So, no, not even this "bleeding heart liberal" poster believes this couple will die, let alone millions of seniors, if Congress decides to increase the Medicare eligibility age. There are other programs to help the uninsured obtain health insurance and I believe these will continue. If not, there are community clinics that will continue to provide services on a sliding scale. It will all work out. You just need a little faith.
How dare you provide a well-reasoned, thoughtful analysis of the situation?
Don't you realize that millions of 65 and 66 year olds are going to die!!!!
How dare you provide a well-reasoned, thoughtful analysis of the situation?
Don't you realize that millions of 65 and 66 year olds are going to die!!!!
Aren't you angry enough to spit bullets???
They're going to die I tell you!!!
Okay, down, boy, down. Be a good MadMan and I'll give you a bone to gnaw on---maybe even a human bone. hehe MadMan is having a blast with this, I can tell.
On a more serious note, Lenora probably has a good point. There may be extenuating circumstances in the couple's story that we don't know about. I think, without overanalyzing their particular circumstances, what they were trying to say was, at the very least, people's lives with be affected somewhat drastically by any up in the age of eligibility of Medicare. Mine certainly will. But I' beginning to think that maybe Keeper is right. If done, it probably won't come around for a long long time as things in Congress move at a snail's pace. Perhaps everyone here over 55 will be long gone by the time anything devastating comes down the pike.
I am 60 and it's taking me forever and a day just to get to 65. Having to wait those extra two years will have me seriously considering just being done with all this baloney and moving to a foreign country that is American-friendly and which would offer me reasonably affordable health insurance, and wouldn't suddenly cancel me if/when I file a claim for care like all American health care insurance co's do. Anybody else feeling angry enough to spit nails that Obama would even propose this?
None of this concur unless the Republican House and Democratic Senate go along with it. So it is not the province of one person to do.
None of this concur unless the Republican House and Democratic Senate go along with it. So it is not the province of one person to do.
Well, the Repubs would be onboard for this in a New York minute, obviously, and what Obama wants from the Dems Obama will get, so I don't think it's as far fetched as it seems. And I'm hearing 2014 being bandied about as a possible phase-in date, although I've heard 2021-2034 phase-in as well. As I noted, who can know what's in the mind of a mindless Congress.
anyone who is planning on SS payments covering 100% of their living expenses needs to seriously review their retirement plan. Or, better yet, hire a financial planner for an hour or two to slap you upside the head with a reality check.
that may be true, but as always people who have this type of opinion forget one thing....many people are not born with the same intelligence and or physical abilities to ever get a really good paying job....some of them can barely feed themselves...I'm quite sure a financial planner isn't in their future.
That's one thing about this country that really bothers me...people have blinders on and can only see their own situations without taking into consideration, that there are many types of people.
But I guess that's just me...I can have compassion for someone less fortunate than myself. I was blessed to be of normal intelligence and get a good job and have pension and 401 K both....but others aren't so blessed, through NO FAULT of their own.
Nobody is proposing raising the Medicare eligibility age for anyone who is even close to 60 much less between the ages of 60-65.
Right. Your generation has SOME political clout--unlike mine. Apparently 100% of Big Government's theft and ripoff plans are targeted at MY GENERATION: those unlucky enough to be born after 1960. I guess we don't count, other than to pay massive taxes. It seems on the government accounting sheets, our names have "SUCKER" and "PATSY" written next to them. We always pay the most, and get NOTHING back.
Though my generation is so brainwashed that they will actually have to wait until there is NOTHING left for us, after we paid for everyone else, I hope at that point they get mad. Our predecessors had prosperity; we had nothing but bills and constant decline of quality of life.
ALREADY we're denied us any SS or Medicare benefits until age 67 (and God Knows what the retirement age will actually be when we get within 5 years of it). Perfect timing: we also have paid the absolute MAX in SS/Medicare taxes, since we graduated college the exact year they raised them to pay for both existing beneficiaries, and our own Baby Boom retirement. But, wait, it's never quite enough of a Rip-Off: Washington couldn't keep its thieving mitts off of the SS "Trust Fund", and of course stole and spent that whole $2.7 trillion also. Now, no matter WHAT happens, government simply CANNOT pay my generation ANYTHING back, after robbing us of 15.3% of our lifetime incomes for this one, failed program.
You can't get blood from a stone, or taxes from an economy stripped of jobs.
The Ponzi Scam of Big Government is now over, and we are the generation that lost everything. So I say dismantle the corrupt mess NOW, stop the theft of massive taxation NOW, and start building a real economy that doesn't rob everyone and give all the wealth to the 5 or 6 trillionaires now running the slave-nation. Time to start our own private economies and trade and Libertarian outposts, and let the socialists drown in their own Big Government financial games, ripoffs, and speculative bubbles.
Well, the Repubs would be onboard for this in a New York minute, obviously, and what Obama wants from the Dems Obama will get, so I don't think it's as far fetched as it seems. And I'm hearing 2014 being bandied about as a possible phase-in date, although I've heard 2021-2034 phase-in as well. As I noted, who can know what's in the mind of a mindless Congress.
So if it that plays out as you state it will still be the result of the President, Republican House and Democratic Sentate joining together and still not the effort of one man.
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