From the Real World Economics Review: The nutty GOP games commence
There is no way around this consequence. It is built into the GOP plan. Indeed the plan touts it as being the reason for the change. By shifting to vouchers insufficient to pay current costs the GOP declares it will control health care spending. This is not true. What it achieves is the establishment of a cap on government spending. It leaves the rise in medial costs uncontrolled and dooms people to less and less coverage as those costs rise more rapidly that the value of vouchers. It shifts the burden of cost control onto the same shoulders that have signally failed in that mission hitherto: the private marketplace. There is no evidence at all, anywhere, that a voucher system will help rein in ballooning costs. What it will do is ration services, with those hit most by rationing being those least able to top up their vouchers with private supplements.
It is, in short, a vicious attack on the elderly poor.
But, given the mean spirited and extreme libertarian tilt in the Republican party, such viciousness is to be expected.
http://rwer.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/the-nutty-gop-games-commence/#more-9846
This blog is a daily read for me - the basic premise of the blog as a whole is that "orthodox" (read: Neocon) economic thinking needs to be challenged and largely refuted, because we're trying to run the world based on economic theories that have demonstrably failed whenever they are put into practice.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)It will exacerbate the disparity between rich and poor.
If Medicare does not cover mom's medical bills, who do we think will be called upon to pay those bills?
The poorest children will agonize over their inability to care for their parents.
As for middle class children, even if they do not pay the medical costs of their parents immediately, they will pay in the form of a reduced value in the parents' estate.
Lowering Medicare will be a kind of estate tax on the middle class.
Remember. The baby boomers paid into Medicare virtually all their working lives. They took care of their parents. Everything was fine until the rich got the Bush tax cuts.
Look for a lot of moms and dads to be moved in with their children. Also, look for a lot of parents deciding to do without treatments that could extend their lives. It's sad but true. That is what will happen.
The Republicans and those who do not want to fully fund Medicare and Social Security are just cruel.
But then, if you look at the plight of the homeless in the US, that will not surprise you. I am noticing that the portion of homeless people who are elderly has increased in the past ten years.