If you don’t know this already, you should know that I’ve been a registered Democrat since I first registered to vote in 1959 here in Alachua County. At the time, it was partially to do with the fact that in Florida the primaries were almost exclusively Democrat and if you weren’t registered as a Democrat, you were essentially left out. But I’ve never had a good reason to change and I think of myself today as a left leaning centrist. That being said, I have issues with trying to privatize social security and health care for folks my age. We need a vigorous debate but I’m going to come down on the side of government sponsored health plans. READ MORE HERE…
2 thoughts on “AP Poll: Medicare doesn’t need to be cut”
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Helping Define Your Financial Future 
Tony – I’m not far from where you are on this. In a state with plenty of tea partiers I’m going to “come out” and announce my support for Obamacare.
I understand the TPs’ main objection. It’s about the individual mandate and how that impinges on freedom. They say it’s unconstitutional of the Feds to tell us what to buy. Guess what? As Robert Reich has pointed out, we’re already in that situation several times over. We have to “buy” Social Security. We have to “buy” Medicare. If we want to drive on public roads, funded by the Federal Government the TPs despise, we have to buy auto insurance. And so it goes.
They’ll say that two wrongs don’t make a right. I say that without an individual mandate, obliging healthy (but sometimes unwilling) people to buy a health plan, reform of any type is worthless. We will be destined to face healthcare costs that will eternally rise at 3 to 5 times the inflation rate. Until one day, not very far in the future, when the system breaks down entirely.
And one more thing. There is dishonesty on both sides of the political aisle on the healthcare issue. The room is crowded with “elephants”, but here’s a big one: rationing. No-one talks about it. However, there is rationing today and there’ll be rationing in the future. The questions are – what’s the fairest way to ration and who’s best placed to do it? Well, although I am 100% in favor of free enterprise, I trust private, profit motivated companies less than I do a properly selected panel of citizens.
Unlike you I am not a Democrat. I am an independent, but the shenanigans and hypocrisy of the right on the matter of healthcare has driven me to the left.
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Thanks Steve. I’ve been reluctant to wear any political clothes so as not to find I’ve pissed in the well, so to speak. But I’ve decided that with this forum, I’m going to increasingly speak my mind and if it pisses off some clients, so be it. I suspect that it may resonate with others who then elect to become clients. And its certainly more fun.
As for health care, I wish Hillary had been more successful in the 90’s. Those of us who are paying for health insurance are effectively subsidising those who are not paying. Since society says you cannot simply leave people on the side of the street to die, they get taken care of. And those of us paying for health care are paying a premium. The more people who contribute somehow to the system, the less pressure there will be on those of us able to pay. We are the richest country in the world, or at least we believe that, yet our health care outcomes are way down the list. Something is amiss.
Anyway, I appreciate your input. I’ll do my best to keep the grey cells buzzing as days go by. Tony
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