furface
01-20-2012, 02:19 PM
I didn't watch the recent debate, but apparently Ron Paul was saying the medical care industry was a lot better before Medicare. There are articles lumping the statements into an outright ignorance of facts because he didn't acknowledge the problems that gave rise to Medicare. The MSM of course has problems telling the difference between a fact and an opinion.
Actually, everybody I talked to who was alive before Medicare was enacted claims medical care was much better before then. Increases in life expectancy haven't come from increased medical coverage. They've come in lifestyle changes like less smoking and knowledge of behaviors that increase heart disease.
It's interesting that I was talking to a friend a friend of my father who is about 75 years old. He's sort of a "man without a country," an international traveler who has no real permanent address. He didn't have health insurance until about 3 months ago when he got a friend of his in Portugal to put him on his payroll in order to get minimal coverage. Tells you a lot about whether or not senior health care coverage is necessary and how systems can be scammed.
My mother is about the same age, 75, and hasn't been to a doctor in decades. She's super religious and believes God will heal her or else take her to Heaven and doesn't worry about it. My father who had great medical insurance died at age 63. Medical coverage does not seem to increase life expectancy among the people I personally know.
There's also this issue of a very large proportion of medical dollars being spent in the last few months of people's lives. That's definitely a Medicare legacy. We need to either expand the system to give it to everybody like they do in Europe and Canada or else get rid of Medicare & most medical industry regulation so market forces will take over. What we have now is insanity and is a huge competitive disadvantage to the United States. Obamacare is only going to make things worse because it doesn't deal with the issue of competition.
Actually, everybody I talked to who was alive before Medicare was enacted claims medical care was much better before then. Increases in life expectancy haven't come from increased medical coverage. They've come in lifestyle changes like less smoking and knowledge of behaviors that increase heart disease.
It's interesting that I was talking to a friend a friend of my father who is about 75 years old. He's sort of a "man without a country," an international traveler who has no real permanent address. He didn't have health insurance until about 3 months ago when he got a friend of his in Portugal to put him on his payroll in order to get minimal coverage. Tells you a lot about whether or not senior health care coverage is necessary and how systems can be scammed.
My mother is about the same age, 75, and hasn't been to a doctor in decades. She's super religious and believes God will heal her or else take her to Heaven and doesn't worry about it. My father who had great medical insurance died at age 63. Medical coverage does not seem to increase life expectancy among the people I personally know.
There's also this issue of a very large proportion of medical dollars being spent in the last few months of people's lives. That's definitely a Medicare legacy. We need to either expand the system to give it to everybody like they do in Europe and Canada or else get rid of Medicare & most medical industry regulation so market forces will take over. What we have now is insanity and is a huge competitive disadvantage to the United States. Obamacare is only going to make things worse because it doesn't deal with the issue of competition.