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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (143343)	10/26/2008 3:32:14 PM
From: geode00	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Right, those are the estimates based on baby boomers and the constant growth of Medicare costs well above that of GDP growth. There is also an estimate of $600 trillion (largest I've seen so far) of financial derivatives out there which is many times the value of world GDP. These are estimates based on what? The baby boom generation is unique. It is large, it is living longer than anticipated based on life expectancy in the previous generations. Longevity appears to have hit a turning point and, just as this next generation may be the first to have a lower standard of living than the previous generation, increases in life expectancy appear to be leveling off and it will, perhaps, even begin to decline. The constant yammering about Medicare costs outstripping our ability to pay does not make sense because if we cannot pay we will not pay. That's a pretty simple equation. The right wing keeps yammering that Medicare is an ENTITLEMENT as if it were welfare. It wants to not pay for welfare for the poor (these days for the middle class either) but it is fine paying out trillions in welfare for corporations and the wealthy. It is pure PR bunkum. The entire point about Medicare Part D is to purposefully make Medicare so expensive (and then scream about it) that public sentiment turns against it and it dies. Why in the world would the supposedly 'capitalist' right wing insist that the government could not negotiate for drug prices? It wants to kill Medicare. Grover Norquist wants to drown the government itself in his bathtub, he wants to drown Medicare in his sink. Healthcare in the USA currently stands at 16% of GDP heading towards 20% of GDP. Health care, including private health care, is too expensive for the benefits it provides....it is a BAD DEAL. If people think Medicare will become too expensive for us to pay that same argument will hold for PRIVATE HEALTH CARE as well. The solution is to improve all health care including Medicare. The solution is to force the fat and the malpractice (very real) and the incompetence out of the health care system. We have so much bloat in it right now that this buys us plenty of time to get over the baby boomer generation right into the baby bust generation. This is a unique demographic problem. It is a variable, not a constant.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (143343)	10/26/2008 4:00:20 PM
From: geode00	Respond to of 173976

On a related subject, IMO processed foods are making us chronically sick causing a huge increase in illnesses like diabetes which leads to all kinds of related (and expensive) health problems. Part of health care is a systemic approach that includes a hard look at our diet. If it was all one integrated system without the profit motive of having lots of sick people paying every month for expensive medications, we would be able to address things like diet and then things like exercise and stress. We could also nip problems as they come up instead of waiting until they blow up and require ridiculously overpriced ER care. Heck, giving people routine dental care would go a long way to improving health. Healthy people are productive and a good thing for the economy in general...that even helps the ultra rich.