Charles P. Pierce: Paul Ryan's Medicare Plan Hinges on American Stupidity. Prove Him Wrong.

[Hamlette]

9. The reason Medicare Advantage works is the feds fund it

but the deductibles would be impossible for the poor or many middle class families.

98% of the health care costs you will incur in your life you will incur in the last 2 years of your life. 95% in the last 5 years. Insurance for people of a certain age is so expensive I do not see how you could afford it or who would provide it AND if you got rid of the ACA too, would it cover preexisting conditions or have life time caps?

If they propose a plan, I"ll look at it and compare it to my situation as well as that of my parents and parents-in-law. Three of them died pretty quick and relatively inexpensive deaths. My father, on the other hand, took six years and his illness would have bankrupted all of us, children included. I'd rather have paid into a system knowing three of the four were "cheated" but all four were cared for than anything I've seen proposed so far.

It is insurance. It is to cover catastrophic loss. If you are rich and healthy it might be a good deal. But god forbid you go the way my father did. He would have died a pauper and so would all the rest of us.

P. S. My mother loved Medicare when my father was ill. They had supplemental insurance from my father's work but it paid for next to nothing and getting them to pay what they were required to pay was demeaning and difficult. I will have no clout with a private carrier. I can't threaten to vote someone out of office if they don't pay up.