Has mandated insurance ENABLED the attack on Medicare?

[Faryn Balyncd]

Three questions:


1. Wasn't it just yesterday (so to speak) that the actions of ONE Senator (Joe Lieberman) single-handedly derailed what was on the verge of passage: the option for those 55 and over to buy into Medicare? . . . . To buy into a system which, because of favorably pricing at the provider level would be achievable at far less cost than under reformed & mandated insurance? . . . . And that this approach, of EXPANDING Medicare eligibility & participation, held the hope of evolution to Medicare-for-All?


2. Would the recent widely reported "willingness" by the President to raise the age for Medicare to 67 EVER HAVE BEEN ON THE TABLE, if not for the passage of America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009?


3. Is moving away from the Medicare model, toward mandatory participation in corporate insurance from cradle to grave, a step forward, or is it more akin to the slow "turning of the ship" in the wrong direction? . . . . Is it a turn which, if we start down the path of limiting (rather than EXPANDING) Medicare eligibility, may only be righted with great struggle?
















:kick:

[TheKentuckian]

1. Of course it has greased those wheels, it is essentially RyanCare for the rest of us.

[Faryn Balyncd]

2. Figuring out how to go forward is a challenge.

[TheKentuckian]

3. Yeah, that is for sure. I suspect it will be messy and risky in any event.

[somone]

4. Recommended

[slipslidingaway]

5. Yes! ...

thought that for a couple of years now.

[leftstreet]

6. K&R

Yep

[Edweird]

7. I see them both as fruit of the same vile RW ideology, not as cause and effect.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. We call for Medicare For All while Obama wants Meicare for

fewer and fewer.

[TNLib]

9. Good point

nt

[JoePhilly]

10. Its a secret plot!!!!

Obama came up with it as a child in Kenya.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

11. Randi raised this point on her show last week... n/t