The buzz in Washington is that the Democrats are about to cave on lowering the cost of entitlements. They need to give the Republicans some kind of bone to show for accepting higher taxes on the wealthy. The solution is raising the eligibility age for Medicare from 65 to 67.
The problem is that this won’t save any money at all.
Picture the country thirty years from now when this change kicks in. (Washington absolutely loves to save money decades from now.) Everybody who earns under four times the poverty rate will be on Obamacare.
Businesses have long since opted out of the health care business and routinely pay the penalty so their workers can shop for health care in the open market. Bottom line, that doubles your profit margin.
By the time the people affected by this new law actually become eligible for Medicare 80% of them will be on Obamacare. Raising the eligibility age to qualify for Medicare is moot – either way they get their health care from the same federal government.
You’re just changing your provider from one government program to another government program.
Thirty years from now, the other 20% of health care consumers won’t use Medicare even after they’re eligible. They’ll pay a little extra to see a real doctor for their health care.
Medicare and Obamacare will by then send everybody to see physician’s assistants and nurse practitioners or maybe just some clerk who plugs their symptoms into a computer to get a diagnosis. That’s how the VA does it now, the most efficient health care system in the world – and the model for Obamacare of the future.
That’s progress for you.
