To all those who have been telling us for months . . .

[CTyankee]

240. No. Because CCPI is a form of austerity and it won't work anyway, except to make older

people poorer. How then do we save SS? By raising the cap. Let's try that first. And by making the tax system MORE progressive. But I don't want to see SS or Medicare turned into a poverty program. That will kill those programs as surely as the sun rises in the East. And the RWingers know that, they just won't admit it. They know that if they cut those two programs a bit here, a bit there, the programs will become less and less popular and people will say the hell with them. Then the RW has won! Let's not help them achieve their evil goal.

There are several things I would do. I would welcome changes to Medicare to squeeze out wasteful spending on expensive procedures or drugs that have no proven efficacy. I believe we should have a gatekeeper system, whereby you must be referred to a specialist by your PCP, because in countries where the PCP is utilized more often, health care outcomes are better than here and they have better results (pretty stunning, isn't it?) I think cost vs. efficacy of drugs is a false choice. Of course, I don't want a drug that doesn't work. But I take the generic whenever possible. I agree with all the savings that Obama has made to Medicare so far.

But the handwriting is on the wall for universal health care and I hope I live long enough to see it. We have a screwy, for profit system that costs more, does less and hurts people more than other countries who have single payer.