Gorilla's Blog

What happens when two worthless Congressmen, one from each party, decide to unite on a Medicare “reform” proposal?

They destroy Medicare!

Anything relating to “reforming Medicare” that includes vouchers and the private sector will: a) cost far more than traditional Medicare and b) reduce the benefits available under traditional Medicare.

What would a serious Medicare reform entail?

A single payer system: if everyone’s covered, from birth to death, at the current minimum Medicare level, with the option to buy supplemental coverage from the private sector, then costs will be reduced substantially. We do not need insurance middlemen at all.

A national health care system with both public and private sector inputs that spends 50% less on health care and provides better outcomes: this would be the health care system that is available everywhere else in the developed world.

A national health care system that allows beneficiaries to shop for coverage from other countries and lifts the protectionist barriers erected by the doctors’ lobby and Big Pharma. Paying doctors what they’re paid in other rich countries, publicly funding all pharma research, and reducing patent grant periods to 5 years maximum will reduce costs dramatically with no impact on the quality of services provided.

A rigorous national effectiveness testing board to determine whether treatments justify costs.

All of these reforms would make a dramatic contribution to deficit reduction, provide better quality medicine at lower cost, and enable all Americans, for the first time ever, to enjoy lifetime health security.

What Wyden and Ryan propose is nothing more and nothing less than shifting the cost of Medicare onto the backs of senior citizens. This is what complete amorality on the part of corporate America’s Congressional shills looks like.

Gorilla says: “A serious reform of Medicare has yet to be proposed by anyone, Wyden-Ryan is simply the latest non-serious disaster!”