Future of Medicare

I, for one, like Medicare. I saw the service my aging and ailing mother received when she had her Medicare delivered through a private insurance company...several of them, because they kept dropping her until she eventually had no choice. She, a good conservative Republican, hates Medicare.

In Indiana, since leaving Florida, she has been on Medicare. From my perspective, the one who pays her bills and takes care of her. medicare is far, far, superior. The coverage is better and the paperwork is reduced.

Having said that, an article in yesterdays NYT on Medicare http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/us/politics/03qhealth.html?ref=us

suggests the Medicare is in serious trouble and none of the current presidential candidates are really addressing it, and the Dems, who do, their plans won't help. This analysis, unlike most which posit that it is demographics that is driving the problem, suggests otherwise. An excerpt:

Peter R. Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office, said, “The bulk of the projected increase in spending on Medicare and Medicaid is due not to demographic changes, such as increases in the number of beneficiaries, but to increases in costs per beneficiary.”

And what is driving those costs?

“Most of the long-term rise in health care spending is associated with the use of new medical technologies,” the budget office said in a recent report. It suggested that more selective use could save substantial amounts — a prospect that alarms manufacturers of some medical devices.

The article continues on about the problems. There were two items that were not mentioned. One, that the system is unsustainable because medical providers can't make any money and two, what if everyone was covered by Medicare, with younger, healthier folks helping to pay for the older folks. Private insurance has a huge disincentive to hold onto older, sicker, patients, while Medicare, well, the economics are different.