How would Medicare for All Work? Medicare today is viable because people have paid 30+ years into

[moose65]

38. For my 1,000th post - I think there's a flaw in your thinking

People who have paid into Medicare for 30+ years were not paying for their own benefits. While they were paying their Medicare taxes, they were paying for the healthcare of the people who were currently on Medicare. Then, when they retired and started to receive their Medicare benefits, their benefits were (and are) being paid for by people who are currently paying into the system. That's how it works - you don't pay for your OWN benefits. There's not some little account somewhere with your name on it, and you don't get back just what you paid in.

As an aside, my grandmother passed away in 2012 at the age of 92. She was born in 1920 and never had a job in her entire life, so she never paid a cent into Medicare. However, when she turned 65 she was covered by Medicare. Medicare is not dependent on ability to pay or whether you ever paid any money into it.

I think our way to Medicare for All will have to be incremental and it will take a long, long time to implement. First, the ACA exchanges should have a public option that people can purchase, instead of buying expensive health insurance from private companies. Then, people who are 60 or over should be able to opt in to Medicare. And how about offering Medicare on the other end of life, too - we should cover children from birth up to age 18.