In Healthcare Reform Seniors with Most to Lose

The Healthcare reform debate has exposed the superficial understanding of healthcare by many of our politicians. Even our president has “misspoken” consistently on a number of aspects of healthcare and reform. Healthcare reform will either lead to rationing, tax increases or both. With unemployment hovering in low double digits, raising taxes would be the surest bet to stagnate economic growth in our country. Surveys have shown a high level of satisfaction among Medicare enrollees. Seniors as a whole are also the most financially secure segment of our population. Medicare is a “government option”; it is not means-tested and they cannot be turned down for pre-existing conditions. One could argue that for seniors there is no incentive to endorse any radical reform, because they have the most to lose. This made the recent endorsement of healthcare reform by the AARP rather puzzling.

Medicare covers 44 million people (seniors and disabled) and is financially insolvent – let’s leave Medicaid, another financially insolvent program, out of this or now. Obama bandies about a figure of “47 million uninsured.” Providing a government option for these folks would effectively double the number of beneficiaries to a system that is already underfunded. Before the Ponzi scheme of Medicare and its sister programs collapses, Uncle Sam will seek to cut costs. Seniors will be the obvious target population in which to trim costs, leaving a variable gap between what is technologically available and what is fiscally feasible. Frustrating these efforts will be how many hospitalized seniors, even those who are quite frail, desire aggressive treatment. Presently, seniors enjoy the security of tax-payer subsidized, state-of-the-art medical care without much in the way of rationing. Is the average Medicare beneficiary prepared to learn aggressive treatment may not be covered when it appears to the outside (government) observer that there is little hope or quality of life? The government is overpromising and will almost inevitably under-deliver.

Medicare presently gives beneficiaries the freedom to choose from the latest treatments regardless of their prognosis or whether someone else disagrees with their decision. It is hard to imagine that the grass would be greener for seniors after the proposed healthcare reform plans were implemented. Seniors should advocate for improvements to Medicare that strengthen the program financially while preserving their autonomy and access to treatment. They should also advocate for their younger fellow citizens so that artificial barriers to competition in the insurance industry are removed and more affordable policies become available. State and Federal governments have created so much of the complexity and discontent with healthcare in America – do we really believe that government will now get it right in a few months of congressional negotiations?