Posted 8:28 pm Wednesday, August 22, 2012
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MEDICARE, August 22
I am 66 years old. With regard to Medicare, I have skin in the game, both figuratively and literally. Now that Rep. Paul Ryan is the Republican nominee for vice president of the United States, be prepared to hear “Republicans want to end Medicare as we know it” ad nauseam between now and Nov. 6.
The fact is, Medicare as we know it will end soon, whether Democrats will admit it in public or not. The program is financially unsustainable, more and more physicians are refusing Medicare patients, and the rationing of medical care via Medicare is inevitable. Not a single Republican proposes doing anything to Medicare for persons currently or soon to be using the program. Anyone who suggests otherwise is badly misinformed or dishonest.
Medicare simply has to change. We seniors can refuse to accept this fact, insist that no changes be made, watch our medical care deteriorate, and pass on to the next generations a program that provides medical care that is inferior and available to fewer individuals (if the program survives at all). Or we can be leaders in demanding serious searching for a financially sustainable program that will provide high-quality medical care for us as well as the next generations of seniors.
Let’s demand that our political leaders get serious about reforming Medicare.
Jim Schwane
Whitehouse
The fact is, Medicare as we know it will end soon, whether Democrats will admit it in public or not. The program is financially unsustainable, more and more physicians are refusing Medicare patients, and the rationing of medical care via Medicare is inevitable. Not a single Republican proposes doing anything to Medicare for persons currently or soon to be using the program. Anyone who suggests otherwise is badly misinformed or dishonest.
Medicare simply has to change. We seniors can refuse to accept this fact, insist that no changes be made, watch our medical care deteriorate, and pass on to the next generations a program that provides medical care that is inferior and available to fewer individuals (if the program survives at all). Or we can be leaders in demanding serious searching for a financially sustainable program that will provide high-quality medical care for us as well as the next generations of seniors.
Let’s demand that our political leaders get serious about reforming Medicare.
Jim Schwane
Whitehouse
