DISQUS

A Happy Hospitalist: http://thehappyhospitalist.blogspot.com/2007/12/its-feeding-time-for-entitled-america.html

  • Anonymous · 1 year ago
    "i'm avoiding other responsibilities by responding here"
    that's great! lol


    just wanted to say great post. as a society we really need to adjust our expectations. i wonder if we can adjust those expectations from a medical liability standpoint to allow for less testing and such to really try and save costs, as in england? doubt it. maybe someday we will have to ration treatment oregon style-create a list of covered items. if off the list, you have to figure it out on your own.



  • View from the Trekant · 1 year ago
    So much of this right on the mark.

    Wealthy medicare patients (with vacation homes and annual Hawaii trips) are asking for an Rx for prescritption version of the prilosec and antihistamines that they had been buying over the counter, so as to get part D to pick up the cost.

    I don't want my children buried in tax because we can't get our politicians to stop handing out entitlements. The lack of means testing is particularly galling to me.



  • Greg P · 1 year ago
    This problem will require something more complex than cutting benefits. To some extent it will require a set of solutions in which everyone shares some of the burden.
    It's easy to look at the costs collectively and create scary numbers. Many retirees, whether deemed "wealthy" or not, are looking at their expected lifespan, the rising cost of living, and wondering if their money is going to last. Cuts in benefits are likely to be spread across the board, not focused on some group said to be able to afford to pay their own way.
    Perhaps if the President and Congress got their healthcare through the Medicare system they would be in a better position to decide what the country can afford.

  • Seth · 1 year ago
    Excellent and definitely informative post, George.

    I'd rather have a bunch of clones of you in Congress, any day! :-)

    If politicians balanced their own checkbooks the way they balance the taxpayers', they'd be conducting the business of state from rescue missions.

    The baby boom debacle was glaringly obvious years ago (and I recall that the Social Security Administration was several trillion dollars in debt over 20 years ago), yet Congress did nothing but expand entitlements they had to know they couldn't pay for, but what the heck: The funding didn't come out of their own checking accounts, anyway, and their irresponsible disbursements got them votes.

    "Don't tell my mother I'm a politician, she thinks I play the piano in a whorehouse."