The Medicare Buffet

Matt G my brilliant blog dude has added a counter to this blog that reminds me, and you, how many days it is until I’m eligible for the Medicare Buffet.   I’m already putting off some medical treatment.  I have written before about the unsustainable cost of the baby-boomers on the Medicare system.  To continue the buffet metaphor; fortunately for me I’m at the front of the line and so I’ll be able to get a full plate.  For those arriving a decade or so down the line the pickings might be pretty slim.

President Obama, to his credit, is trying to do something about Medicare costs.  His plan is a combination of new health benefits to younger, healthier and poorer people as a way to placate the left while cutting benefits or at least the cost of benefits to medicare recipients.  It may or may not work because old people pay attention and vote.  In my opinion Medicare like prescription drug benefits needs to be means tested and the co-pays need to be high enough to effect behavior.

In 1993 P. J. O’Rourke said “If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.”  He was right.   For old people Medicare makes health care free and now we know that the cost will bankrupt the country.