Like Dr. Ron Paul and everyone paying the 3% tax on their income for Medicare, I would like to see Medicare abolished. This cannot be accomplished suddenly, however, as so many people are accustomed to living on the dole and the market would need time to react to this radical change. I have suggested in a previous blog that one way to get there would be to send this Ponzi scheme to the states for them to deal with as they see fit. Some in D.C. have suggested that the program continue, but be “means tested.”
I thought of this while at a college football game this weekend. Having donated to a major university, my family was eligible to purchase seats in the “club level.” This donation was significant. I was struck at our first game with how many elderly folks were in the “club level.” I started wondering how many of them would flinch or gripe about means testing Medicare. I started thinking that spared the expense of health insurance or health care, they were able to buy these very expensive tickets to the game. I began to wonder if these elderly folks realized that their grandchildren were actually subsidizing their football habit. I thought of the grief that Dr. Tom Coburn has been given for even suggesting that means-testing federal entitlements like Medicare should be considered.
Most families are paying $1000-1500/month for traditional health insurance. Many are not aware that this is the actual expense, as their employer pays a substantial amount of this bill. This comes right out of the employee’s paycheck, however, one way or another. This amount of money is more than enough to pay for a donation sufficient to “join the club” at the big university and purchase tickets at the 50 yard line.
Major university football teams and diesel motor home makers are not the only beneficiaries of this distortion of the market made possible by the robbery of the young working folks for the benefit of the older retirees. The list of beneficiaries of this mal-investment is too long for this blog.
There is no market based insurance product for the elderly. Medicare has no competitors. Right now the elderly have no choice but to accept this program, other than to reject all insurance, an option that is scary for all but the extremely wealthy. I hope the day will come when the elderly demand that this Ponzi scheme stops. Medicare’s demise won’t happen any other way, in spite of the efforts of well-meaning folks in D.C.
G. Keith Smith, M.D.
