The Medicare Debate - Simplified

There is a lot of (mis)information going around concerning the opposing Medicare plans. So this post is devoted to making it easy to understand where both parties stand on this crucial issue.

The Democrats want to leave it alone. Keep the status quo. Don't upset the apple cart.

Republicans want to alter Medicare as follows:

1) NO CHANGES for anyone 55 or older. If you are on Medicare, or will be within the next 10 years, you will see no changes to your coverage

2) Anyone 54 or younger would be able to choose, at their own option, whether to go with traditional Medicare OR accept vouchers they can use to obtain their own coverage. The latter is the same plan Congress has.

Now for the hard truth - according to the non-partisan CBO, Medicare as it exists right now will be bankrupt in 12 years. In other words, if you are 53 or younger, you would not have ANY coverage, and those who are already covered would lose coverage. Medicare would be broke.

So, Democrats want to leave Medicare alone. This would result in losing it for everyone. I do not think that is a good plan. It would end in disaster.

The Republican plan allows coverage to continue indefinitely, although it would mean making certain changes for younger people.

For those of you who have ever lived on a farm, or have ever grown crops, you understand - if you eat all the corn you grow, and do not save some for next years' seed, you will go hungry next year.

The Republican plan takes a small amount out to be used for reseeding next year, keeping crops coming, year after year. The Democrat plan simply depletes the crops, using them up - they do not want to take anything out of the crop to be used for sustaining future crops.

There you have it. On the one hand, there would be no chages and Medicare will end in 12 years. On the other hand, minor changes would be made ONLY FOR YOUNGER PEOPLE, and the savings used to make Medicare permanent.

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