We don’t exactly know what Obama supports. But we do know the public wants Washington to keep its hands off Medicare. Nearly 60 percent of people oppose any cuts to Medicare, according to a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health. Harvard’s Dr. Robert Blendon said the public supports Medicare even more than the numbers indicate. He said it’s one of the biggest disconnects between the public and official Washington he has ever seen.
Presidential vagueness plus a very popular program the public wants to keep the way it is adds up to a very significant story.
The Second Opinion, CJR’s healthcare desk, is part of our United States Project on the coverage of politics and policy. Follow @USProjectCJR for more posts from this author and the rest of the United States Project team.
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the nonsense behind the shame is this:
by raising the Medicare "tax" seniors could pay for ALL of their medical needs in advance. That's the way insurance is supposed to work. That is especially the way Medicare is supposed to work: we pay for our expected costs in old age while we are still young and have an income.
Between the people who pretend that because it's a "government"program, the money is "the government's" and we can "cut government spending" by cutting Medicare... and those who think "the government" SHOULD pay for everything. we are shooting ourselves in the head.
#1 Posted by dale coberly, CJR on Fri 15 Feb 2013 at 08:00 PM
Correction: There is no Simpson-Bowles Report. It's just a letter Morgan Stanley director Erskine Bowles.and former Senator Alan Simpson wrote with their own opinions that the full panel wouldn't pass.
Also, though the commission was *called* a deficit-reduction commission, it was clear from the outset that reducing the deficit was not its principle concern - reducing benefits was its priority.
#2 Posted by Avedon, CJR on Sat 16 Feb 2013 at 11:12 AM
Maybe you could not pay these doctors who screw up surgeries and then get PAID to fix the person back up. They should do it for free or at least half of their pay instead of medicare rewarding them by paying them twice. Once for the initial surgery and one for repairing their mistakes. It is them that also will incur a large hospital bill which medicare pays and the poor patient has to pay some of it even though they did not make this cost. This happens a lot and the doctors walk away rewarded and with no consequences to them in most cases. It could also be that if the doctor do not take care of the patient for less they will be penalized. Doctors in incur a lot of you patient and hospital costs.
#3 Posted by Linda L, CJR on Sun 24 Feb 2013 at 11:43 AM