Seriously, GOP? Really?

[kentonio]

To directly answer your question, the part where they give out a set amount regardless of the severity of need. Plus Ryan has actually admitted this.

[giblets]

To directly answer your question, the part where they give out a set amount regardless of the severity of need. Plus Ryan has actually admitted this.

Now I understand why he's an extremist. He won't further expand Medicare if its recipients decide they would like to receive more money.

[kentonio]

Now I understand why he's an extremist. He won't further expand Medicare if its recipients decide they would like to receive more money.

Since when does destroying the current system and replacing it with something very different count as not expanding?

[giblets]

How much of the GDP should old people expect to have handed to them by the government?

[Imran Siddiqui]

I'm curious about this idea that members of Congress participate in a "voucher system". As a federal employee, I can verify that we get a list of guarenteed coverage options and a certain amount is covered (by our employer, ie, the US government) and we are responsible for the rest.

[regexcellent]

kentonio, is there something fundamentally evil about having to pay for your own health care, even in part?

[notyoueither]

I'd say that in the case of people who are not employed and do not have reliable income of any great amount, that yes there is a problem when a supposedly world leading economic-politcal system will not provide sufficient care for them.

[notyoueither]

The problem, as viewed from the outside, is not that the US can't provide proper medical coverage for all, it is a stubborn refusal to do so.

[giblets]

Of course not. We have to spend lots of money, but give it to senior citizens who may not even be poor.

[notyoueither]

The irony, IIUC, is the massive subsidy to middle-class healthcare and then complaint about providing care to the poor and old.

[notyoueither]

I wouldn't say evil. Ghastly would be a better descriptor of the US system.

[Jon Miller]

I was actually reading an article recently that the French system (which still works) is actually quite similar to the US system but with a low level public baseline (which was only added in the 90s).

The reason why their system works is partly because
1. Doctors aren't paid so much, in part because doctors don't have to pay so much to go to school (people who want an upper class life don't choose to be doctors in France)
2. drug costs are kept down, by various mechanisms (might include price controls)

The first is something KH has repeatedly pointed out and that I have considered a lower order effect. I think now that I am wrong.

The second basically reflects the situation that the US is subsidizing the worlds drug development costs, which I already knew. Maybe we should stop doing so?

JM

[DinoDoc]

Since when does destroying the current system and replacing it with something very different count as not expanding?

Lie of the Year 2011: 'Republicans voted to end Medicare'

[Felch]

The irony, IIUC, is the massive subsidy to middle-class healthcare and then complaint about providing care to the poor and old.

The old are the rich.

[notyoueither]

Yes, each and every one of them.