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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated
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To: KLP who wrote (440476)8/14/2011 8:06:51 AM
From: Zakrosian  Read Replies (1) of 794042
 
That's a strawman if I ever heard of one...What 99 y/o have you EVER heard of wanting a pacemaker?????

I believe that Obama's response about giving granny painkillers instead of a pacemaker was to a woman whose 99 year old grandmother had recently received a pacemaker.

On a personal level, I have two parents in their late 80's. They have an excellent pension; they end up with more money than they started at the end of every year. They don't have a lot of health issues that they're willing to deal with, but taxpayers pick up the tab for what they do use. While I appreciate the fact that Medicare is subsidizing my inheritance, I'm not sure it's good policy.

On the flip side, I have a 92 year old aunt who's in an Assisted Living facility that costs more than her combined pension/Social Security. My sisters and I are paying the difference. We could have her moved to a nursing home and taxpayers would pick up the bill, which would be almost twice the cost of assisted living.

I agree that Obamacare will be a disaster, but one argument against it - the fact that it's irrational to think you could cover 20 million more people without running up huge cost increases - implies that we're rationing health care services now (the uncovered aren't using the system as much as they would if they were covered).

So the issue isn't whether we ration health care, but how. If every American has every health service they want covered by some sort of insurance, then taxes and premiums will skyrocket.

I think the CEO of Whole Foods had the best suggestions; essentially, by putting the onus on individuals to decide whether to spend their money (money provided by their employer or the govt) on services, costs will go down.
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