Medicare For All?
I just about tossed my cookies when I saw this headline over a Ted Kennedy op/ed:

I think Teddy K. just drove off another bridge. Here’s a key excerpt from the load of drivel he’s penned:
I believe that the best plan for the nation is to build on a program that all Americans know and respect by creating Medicare for All. Medicare administrative costs are low. Patient satisfaction is high. Patients can choose their doctors and hospitals. And all Americans will be free from the fear of medical expenses and able to seek the best possible care when illness strikes.
He can’t be serious.
This year alone Medicare is expected to cost this country some $540 billion, a figure President Bush is “trimming”, according to the media, by dampening it’s growth from a projected 8.1% to 7.7% annually. Meaning that we’ll still spend more than $540 billion on Medicaid next year and the year after that, just not as much more as previously projected.
Medicaid is also a gigantic expense for taxpayers, costing about $330 billion in 2005 alone, an amount that also, historically, grows at about a 7 - 8% yearly clip.
Together, Medicaid and Medicare represent a portion of our nation’s spending as a percentage of the GDP that is becoming enormous. It is projected to actually outpace the growth in Social Security spending we’re all so worried about:

What this means is that while Teddy’s promises on health care may sound enticing, the truth is that it would be an expansion of already burdensome health entitlements that would cause our government to grow even larger, representing an increasing burden on taxpayers with absolutely no end to the growth in sight.
And who has ever heard of anyone being happy to be on Medicare?
I think Teddy needs to return to earth from the Cutty Sark galaxy.













