Do you think Medicare has any analogy to "Obama"care? Well, it does. No one much complains about Medicare, particularly the people who depend on it for continued health, rather than steady decline, hospitalization, institutionalization (nursing hopes), and skyrocketing costs associated with preventable health issues. In 1995, under the leadership of then House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), Republicans wanted to cut 14% from Medicare spending over seven years , thus forcing millions of elderly into managed health care programs or HMOs. The cuts were to ensure that Medicare is “going to wither on the vine,” Gingrich explained. In the 2008 Presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) proposed cutting $1.3 trillion from Medicare and Medicaid. Since 1965, “the health of the elderly population has improved, as measured by both longevity and functional status.” In fact, according to a study from Health Affairs, life expectancy at age 65 increased from 14.3 years in 1960 to 17.8 years in 1998 and the chronically disabled elderly population declined from 24.9 percent in 1982 to 21.3 percent in 1994.” Before Medicare, “about one-half of America’s seniors did not have hospital insurance,” “more than one in four elderly were estimated to go without medical care due to cost concerns,” and one in three seniors were living in poverty. Today, nearly all seniors have access to affordable health care and ONLY about 14 percent of seniors are below the poverty line. According to the Commonwealth Fund, found that “elderly Medicare beneficiaries reported greater overall satisfaction with their health coverage, better access to care, and fewer problems paying medical bills than people covered by employer-sponsored plans.” In fact, Medicare is so popular that most Americans support expanding Medicare coverage to Americans aged 55 to 64. According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll, “over half of Americans (53 percent) “strongly” support such a proposal and an additional 26 percent say they support it somewhat, totaling 79 percent backing.”
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 17:39:35 +0000
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