Incremental Privatization
by digby
Joan Walsh has written a comprehensive post about the proposal (by some people) to hike the Medicare eligibility age that's worth reading in its entirety. But her conclusion is particularly important:
We just had an election in which the president promised to protect Medicare, and never once publicly supported raising the eligibility age to 67, while Romney’s advisors said his plan included hiking the age (Romney himself avoided details about any of his plans.) Post-election polls find that two thirds of voters oppose increasing the Medicare eligibility age. Should this deal become reality, it would reinforce the cynicism Americans harbor about government – and about Democrats. Deservedly.
The truth is, Obama should be pushing to lower the Medicare eligibility age, to let those 55 and over opt to buy into the program with their own money. The premiums paid by a younger, healthier cohort would help stabilize the program, while the benefits of getting that population insured earlier would keep costs down later. That’ll never happen, you say? Well, we can make sure it’ll never happen if progressives never ask for it.
Honestly, the only real reason to throw seniors into the Obamacare pool is to put more people at the mercy of private insurance, and weaken both the economic and political basis for Medicare... Actually, it’s where the GOP thinks “entitlement reform” should go — into the private sector, with mutual funds handling Social Security, and private insurance taking back the Medicare population. If this is what Obama is trying to do, then he’s ignoring the vote he just received and betraying the social movements that got us the rights we have today.
She also admits, as I do, that this may be a trial balloon floated to gauge reaction, in which case it's important to ... react. Call your congressional Rep and tweet your favorite journalists today. The political establishment needs to know what a shitstorm this will create or they'll think it's just a "balanced approach" that everyone will accept as the price of doing business.
Update: I should point out that a number of health care wonks operating in good faith also believe that sometime in the future Obamacare will be a comprehensive universal system. But they all assume generous subsidies and a public option for all. That's not what the privatizers have in mind --- and I'm stymied as to how that's going to happen in this political environment. So, for me, it's just say no for the foreseeable future.
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