Can Cutting Off Wealthy Seniors Save Medicare? - J.D. Foster

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/07/23/A_Firm_Target_for_Medicare_Sustainability

J.D. Foster presents a proposal to cut the Medicare funding gap by stepping down premiums for wealthy seniors, and phasing it out completely for those making more than $660,000 annually. If this proposal were to take effect, Foster predicts "you knock off 44 trillion dollars from that almost 68 trillion dollar shortfall."

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Presidents, Members of Congress, and policy analysts across the political spectrum agree Medicare, like Social Security and Medicaid, is massively unsustainable in its current form. The funding shortfalls under current law will, over time, overwhelm federal finances.

Moving past general agreement over the problem toward sensible solutions requires two important steps. The first step is agreement on the quantification of the problem and the magnitude of the solution. Washington cannot make the necessary hard choices if it lacks a firm, agreed upon target.

The second step is a workable, politically viable approach that can approach, if not reach the target. This panel presents an approach to determining a target and to hitting the target.

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• funds
• funding
• costs
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• elderly
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[ianhoppe]

They're getting money because they were promised it by the federal government. they paid into FICA their entire life as a form of social insurance. the same goes for social security.

this IS NOT a form of redistribution, the tax is actually regressive. the real tragedy has been occuring for years, the less money you make the more you pay in.

A change of this kind would mean taking medicare and social security from social insurance, to an extension of social welfare.

[funkalunatic]

This might be the first good idea to come out of the Heritage Foundation.

[Redfingers]

Oh, by the way, what occupation on the face of the earth paying $660,000 a year doesn't give health insurance? They probably get dental and every other goddamn thing under the sun free of charge from the businesses they're working for.

This is a racket, plain and simple.

[Redfingers]

People making $660,000 a year can pay for their own medication out of pocket....plus they're getting social security, plus they can afford health insurance.

Why the fuck are these people getting money?

Here's my proposal, we line up every grease-nosed fuck getting these "subsidies" and everyone that supports them along a wall and shoot them in the fucking head. See how much money that saves us. It'll save us some greedy pieces of horse shit too.

[Redfingers]

I'm sorry, this motherfucker in the video just said we can save 44 trillion dollars if we stop giving subsidies to people making over SIX HUNDRED AND SIXTY FUCKING THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR IN INCOME (meaning they have a fucking....sorry, I just threw a shoe across my room....meaning they have a fucking job)?

WHY THE FUCK IS MEDICARE STRUCTURED LIKE THIS? Why are people with income from an existing occupation getting any money from the government at all? What is the point of this?

[Redfingers]

No, those people are old, they deserve free medicine. All old people deserve all the money we can give them because they're old. Take the money from the schools and the roads if you have to, just give the money to old people.

THEY HAVE HEART PROBLEMS! OH GOD, THEY MIGHT DIE, GIVE THEM MONEY!

[Aaberg123]

I agree. But this is only due to pressure from pharma lobbyists. Yes the government is corrupted, but it's corrupted by the people who people look to for a solution.

That's like asking Hitler for help against the holocaust.

Google "parallel import".

[purplecharger88]

Mainly that lack of competition has to do with government programs that keep it out like not letting you buy out of state health insurance.

Another good example is explained in the article "How Government Solved the Health Care Crisis|" by Roderick Long. The video is on youtube on confederatesocialists channel.

youtube. com/watch?v=eumbzcG7qgU

[purplecharger88]

Yawn. Facts and statistics please.

Stop trying to try and get a special pleading for your argument by appealing to emotion. It just shows your argument as weak and unsubstantiated.

[Scoforever]

And the next generation that is completely broke and can't pay for their own healthcare. And if things don't change quickly enough not even their own food.