Are We Waking Up?

The latest polls, of Americans over 50, show a shift to President Obama.  The biggest reason is the Ryan/Romney (I put Romney second because Ryan is the protagonist with Medicare), have taken dead aim at "reforming" Medicare.

The Ryan proposals, that Romney is predictably running away from, call to basically give vouchers to all Medicare prospects under 55, when they become eligible.  Also, the eligible age will go to 67.  These vouchers will in no way be enough to buy insurance.

Any person with any familiarity with insurance, will immediately wonder how 67 year old people will do in the "free health insurance market" with a paltry voucher?

People who are 67 or over have a host of maladies.  Right now, most seniors without Medicare who are  67 have no chance of even purchasing health insurance because of pre-existing conditions.  People over 67 are VERY expensive to insure.

That is why we got Medicare in the first place!

Meanwhile, Ryan's "Plan" (actually a scheme to destroy Medicare),  benignly (?) allows everyone over 55 when  his plan goes into effect, can keep the "defined benefit" Medicare plan.  So, let's just play this out.

Let's say Romney is elected and can  somehow get this "reform"  passed.  All those over 55 would be guaranteed the Medicare we now have, which means they all have insurance.  All those under 55 have a voucher waiting for them when they reach 67.  I assume they keep paying into the fund, but get a voucher to go get private insurance.  In 12 years, the 55 something has Medicare at 65 and has a "single payer" insurance with all the benefits of Medicare today (I assume).  In 12 years the 54 something is 66 and is planning on getting a voucher.  For at least thirty years, you will have a mix of elderly people, about 1/2 who have single payer insurance, 1/2 and growing who have to go out to the private insurance vultures to purchase insurance.

Have you heard of pool regarding insurance rates?   This will be a disaster.  You need a huge pool of people to bring the risk down of an insurance group.  And 67 year old people (and older) are a horrible risk pool.  All of them will be getting sick, cancer rates double the younger population, high blood pressure; etc, AND 1/2 of the pool will have the single payer Medicare program.

So, small pool, huge rates!

For almost 40 years, until all the traditional Medicare people die off, the pool of seniors to "shop" for individual insurance will result in premiums that will be staggering.

The ONLY way insurance companies can even insure this group, and Ryan's bright idea forces them to, is to pass the cost along to younger customers; the 40, 30 and 20 somethings.

The potential for huge increases in health insurance premiums is 100%.

It won't work.  It is ridiculous.

We do need to reform Medicare.  We need to crack down on fraud and abuse.  We need, perhaps, to raise some deductibles on wealthy Medicare recipients.  We might even need to increase the tax that drives the program.

That's right, we may have to pay a little more, to keep the program solvent.  Oh God, I just said the tax word...Romney will immediately protect his tax returns.

Any of these more sensible ideas are superior to the sheer insanity of the Ryan plan.

And seniors, like me who just turned 65, are beginning to think this through, and realize it for the madness that it is.

And Romney, who foolishly put Ryan on his ticket, is suffering in the polls big time.