When you get away from all the political rhetoric, the fact that Medicare, as we know it today is unsustainable. Let's look at a person retiring in 2011. This person entered the workforce in 1966. We will presume a starting salary of $8,000 per year and increases of 5% per year. At the time of retirement, this person will have a salary of $71,800 per year and will have been in the top twenty percent of all earners throughout his/her career.

At current rates this person would have paid $39,135 into Medicare that would have accumulated to $95,888 with a 5% rate of return. This amount will provide $7700 per year for twenty years or a total of $154,000 for your expected life of twenty years from age 65. Medicare will spend $11,100 per recipient in FY 2012. Using the same five percent rate of increase the lifetime expenditures will total $367,000.

This person will have received benefits of $213,000 in excess of what was paid in or 238% of the value contributed. This has nothing to do with insurance companies, taxes, wanting to kill granny, etc. All of those are simply BS and a cynical attempt to hide from the truth and lie to the public in order to get one more term in office.

These are the facts – nothing added and nothing taken away. Any plan that does not deal with them will turn the United States into a third world country.