If there's one thing that really pisses me off, it's when a MEDICARE recipient is against a national

[raccoon]

health plan.

WTF do they think Medicare is? It's a LIMITED national health plan. If you're under 65 and aren't lucky enough to have medical insurance through your employer, their attitude is, "I've got mine, the heck with you."

[antigop]

1. Unbelievable, isn't it? n/t

[pnwmom]

2. Actually, it made sense for Medicare recipients to oppose one plan in particular.

John McCain's -- since it was funded in large part with money taken from Medicare and Medicaid.

[ROakes1019]

3. agree

The same is true of Medicaid recipients, except Medicare beneficiaries do at least pay into the system. A while back I posted about a friend who is a rabid Republican whose grand-daughter-in-law was using Medicaid for the care and delivery of twins. When I said something to her about the irony, she said she had too many problems to worry about politics. Well, the twins were delivered by C-section and are in the neo-natal unit at the hospital. Not a word about the the costs of all this special care for a person who deliberately got pregnant, quit her job, and knew she would have no insurance.

[MineralMan]

4. Yes!

I've had many people tell me that they were opposed to "Socialized Medicine" who were past age 65 and on Medicare. I just ask them if they're OK with their Medicare. "Sure," they say. "It's great, especially with my supplement." Then I ask them what's not socialized about their Medicare.

I'm 63. In a year and a half, I'll be on Medicare myself. Right now, I'm paying $680/mo. for my individual health insurance. It stings...a lot.

Personally, I'm in favor of extending medicare to the entire population, using a single pool to calculate premiums for the coverage. Everyone can buy a supplemental policy to take care of the rest, just like the geezers like myself will be doing.

Or, they can opt out and pay for private insurance, using whatever pool system the insurance company wants to use. I'm betting that few would take that option, frankly.

People should check out how the French do it. That's one that works.

[John Q. Citizen]

8. Many systems work better than our non-system. We have a hodge-podge.

We are already spending more than enough (in aggregate all private and public health care expenditures) to pay for everyone if we had a system instead of the waste and duplication we currently encourage.

[fed_up_mother]

5. If they want Medicare to stick around, they'd better support universal healthcare

Having a program that only pays out for the elderly and sick is breaking the country. We need to receive funds from all taxpayers - young, old, healthy, sick, in order for this to work.

Elder care is an expensive entitlement that I don't know how long we can afford to pay for without having a larger insurance pool.

[youthere]

6. My asshole stepfather is one of these.

[tularetom]

7. My mother and brother used to whine and bitch about socialized medicine

Then my dad got sick. In the last 18 months of his life he ran up over half a million bucks in medical bills. Didn't cost him a dime. Medicare (and his Medicare supplement) paid every bit of it. My mom has passed away also but guess what? My dumbass brother is still whining about socialized medicine.

And he's the "educated" one in the family.