William T Goodall wrote: > On 18 Feb 2005, at 11:56 pm, Robert Seeberger wrote: >> >> I'm not disagreeing with you and Erik, but I think Nick is also >> correct. It seems to me that the "Cost Of Being Old" is rising >> dramatically, and the main causes are due to the rising health costs >> that are effecting everyone. >> We have discussed this a bit in the past. The cost of health care and >> medicine is rising beyond the ability of our society to pay. >> >> Businesses and government are having a hard time affording health >> insurance for employees. Employees are finding that their insurance >> covers less and less. >> >> I think the real key to reigning in Social Security and Medicare >> costs is controlling health care costs. >> >> It may be that we are coming to a point where we have to decide >> between economic security for the old, young and infirm, or free >> market medical and pharmaceutical business practices. > > I'm not American (thank Dog!) and know nothing about your broken > political systems but haven't you just pointed out the fact that > Social Security and Medicare are different? So if they are, then > bringing Medicare into the argument about Social Security is a big > red herring? > > Living costs is one thing, medical care is another. Yes, no?
Sure......but what is happening is that medical and drug coverage is decreasing, and the patient has to bear the balance of what is no longer being covered. I used to not pay for medication at all. Then for a few years I had a 10$ co-pay for pretty much every drug. Now I have a 30$ co-pay and many drugs are not covered at all. I know some older folks who pay a good percentage of their income on medication. If these kinds of problems are not addressed, fixing Social Security will not mean much for many many retirees and quite a few of the rest of us. xponent Herringless Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
