Quote:
Originally Posted by Geewiz
Hey, why not extend the concept to Medicare? These are valuable tax dollars - any poor health practices should exclude you from receiving these funds. Smokers, drinkers, and the obese should be put on a program and correct their poor health practices, or their co-pays should be adjusted upward. Moreover, folks who didn't work and pay into the system should be denied benefits even though their spouse paid in as the spouse only paid for himself/herself. Also, the last 12 months of life use a disproportionate amount of Medicare resources. I say - cut'em off.
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Probably because the current federal statute for Medicare prevents it from happening.
But... anything that is not illegal is probably fair game. Who knows, they may end up changing the law.
For healthcare in general... I expect to see more lifestyle based underwriting for health care coverage. But some situations are not practical to implement or the cost savings do not cover the implementation cost.
Once one gets past the biggest issues of basic affordability and not being denied coverage... the question is who pays?
Since increasing capacity pushes the cost to everyone... ways to reduce the growth of capacity reduces overall cost. Stated a different way, may be the difference between someone getting in to see a doctor in a timely manner.
But for Medicare... the program appears to not be sustainable in terms of current funding. It will be another one of those "who pays battle".
What many do not realize (or refuse to realize) is that without medicare, old people would have no coverage. Insurers would exit the market... like flood insurance. If insurers were forced to stay in the market by law, very few would be able to afford the risk adjusted premium. I suspect most would be forced to settle for catastrophic major medical and go it on their own. The only reason retirees have employer based retirement healthcare coverage at all is because employers know those folks will shift to Medicare. Otherwise most all employers would would abruptly end those benefits... go the way of pensions.
For Medicare, I think a balanced approach should be taken. Every younger person (who lives) will eventually need coverage at an old age so they pay a little more into the system while they are young (however it is implemented). Us oldsters that can pay more for our coverage will have to do that as well. Fair is fair and somebody has to pay for it.