Speaking of Zeke Emanuel..he wants to phase out Medicare, proposes vouchers. [View all]

[madfloridian]

From a post of his at Huffington Post in 2008.

More Reform is Cheaper: The Paradox of Health Care Reform

The biggest surprise is that even more comprehensive reform, not only achieves universal -- true 100% -- coverage of all Americans but does so while controlling costs. Prof. Victor R. Fuchs and I have proposed Guaranteed Healthcare Access Plan. It phases out employer-based insurance, Medicaid, and Medicare. Instead each American would receive a voucher to buy a standard benefits package modeled on the federal employee health benefits plan through regional insurance exchanges in which private health plans would compete. Workers would receive a pay increase from their employers who no longer pay for health care; state taxes decline because states no longer have to devote 32% of their budgets to health care. The plan is financed by a value-added tax.

Our plan is similar to the Wyden-Bennett bill in the Senate in which employers would have to convert workers' health care premiums to higher wages or, if they do not provide coverage, to pay a tax to pay for Americans to buy coverage. Americans would then have to buy health coverage through a state insurance exchange. American families earning under $80,000 per year would be subsidized. Both our proposal and the Wyden-Bennett plan assure Americans complete portability, guaranteed enrollment, and preclude exclusions for any pre-existing conditions.

That is a dream world to believe that employers would be gracious enough to do this. Around here companies lay people off rather than have anyone go over the 29 hours that would constitute full time under ACA. It wasn't meant to happen that way, but that is often the reality.

Someone I know runs a sizable company, and his wife was recently talking about how the ACA was causing him to lay off so many long time workers. I asked her why, and it is because of the 29 hour deal of having to provide insurance. Ideally it shouldn't work that way.

I notice a lot of discussion lately about his statements on not wanting to live past 75.

I find that alarming from someone who was one of President Obama's main health care advisors during the reform time.

I believe that is scary. Views like that would influence the way seniors are given health care. Hey don't worry too much about them. They are old, we don't want to spend too much money on their health care.

Knowing how corporate concerns control our nation now, if they adopt that view seniors would be deprived of the latest technology in many cases.

Zeke's view of life may appeal to some, but I think it is a defeatist view. He sounds like a depressed person pretending to be tough.

When a person limits themselves by age as Zeke does, they might as well get all their affairs in order at 74 and sit back and wait. It's a terrible view.