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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (1013300)	4/26/2017 2:14:34 PM
From: bentway	Respond to of 1574180

How The GOP Social Security/Medicare Doomsday Machine Works forbes.com Intro: There's a great scene in Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece " Dr. Strangelove" in which a Doomsday Machine that will blow up everything is described. The GOP has long embraced such a fiscal model for big government and programs like Medicare and Social Security, which they want to privatize. I'm not being hyperbolic and this is certainly not fake news. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has consistently endorsed a privatization model for Medicare that he's proposed every year since 2011, although his party has always wanted to take apart the program. The reasoning behind handing over Medicare to private insurance companies, Ryan has argued, is that "free market competition" would save the government money. This crackpot theory doesn't work because if you have to negotiate directly with hospitals or doctors, you will never have the bargaining power of a government agency like Medicare or the Veteran's Administration. If you're on your own, you will pay the highest-possible prices and get crushed by the cost of healthcare. I know because I have a high-deductible health policy now and always get creamed on my out-of-pocket expenses with hospitals and doctors. I'm still paying off a $3,500 emergency room bill for one hour's worth of service last year...