WPF's SS argument is ridiculous. I'm tired of hearing it. SS and Medicare are NOT voluntary. The government forces people to pay a predetermined amount, and in return agrees to provide certain services. There is no option to pay more in, to receive the same services.
If the program were voluntary, he'd have a point (which would be a first). But it's not. The fault lies with Congress, not the recipients.
Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy
You dumb ignorant fuck. Old fuckers have expanded Medicare and SS services. The government used to not pay for granny's old folks home. That was not in the agreement.
The problem with this country is dumbshits like you who have no math skills or history of facts. You are just another political hack who thinks you are above the fray. At least I understand that there are only two choices and I have the balls to pick a side. Are you Swiss?
http://www.reportingonhealth.org/201...end-life-costs
There's little question that end-of-life care consumes a disproportionate amount of Medicare spending, accounting for up to 25 percent of all Medicare expenditures. Amy Kelley, a professor at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, found that out-of-pocket expenses for beneficiaries
averaged $38,688 during the last five years of life. Median spending for recipients is about $23,000. The top quarter of those surveyed (using data from the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study) spent an average of $102,000.
Some Medicare beneficiaries don’t purchase
Medicare Supplement
Insurance (Medigap), so they are responsible for deductibles and co-payments, which can spiral during the last years of life, and Medicare provides no limit on out-of-pocket spending. So patients often tap all of their assets just to pay their share of the bills: "Twenty-five percent spent all remaining assets, including any housing or real estate they might own,” Dr. Kelley said. “The frequency tended to be lower among Medicare beneficiaries who were married; higher among those who were single."
Dr. Kelley also found that dementia was the most expensive malady to treat. Since
Medicare
doesn't cover custodial nursing care—and only a limited amount of skilled institutional nursing—families are often forced to spend their life savings to cover the bills. And once they do that, they often then rely upon Medicaid to pay for the remaining expenditures. In many cases, beneficiaries will deliberately spend down their savings in creative ways in order to qualify for Medicaid so nursing care will be covered.
Medicaid, the health program for the poor, was never designed to cover nursing
home care
, but has become a last-resort financing pool for those families that become impoverished by end-of-life care. This growing cost will escalate as the incidence of Alzheimer's disease grows and as baby boomers get older.