The Marvel That is Medicare
Real Clear Politics, July 31st, 2009
It's a fine time -- perfect, in fact -- to celebrate the
government-run, taxpayer-supported colossus in the American health care
system that turns 44 this week. Medicare has done all it was supposed
to do, and more.
It thrives despite apocalyptic warnings from its original opponents
that "socialized medicine" would hamper doctors, hospitals, patients --
perhaps even doom the entire American health care system. Medicare is
exceedingly popular and remarkably well-functioning despite its current
critics' claims that it is singularly wasteful, out of control in some
never-specified way, or at the very least, holds the potential to
bankrupt us all in the next generation.
Medicare is where political posturing runs headlong into historical
truth: It is, along with Social Security, the most successful
government program -- other than its unrivaled military -- that the
United States has ever created.
And it has delivered for elderly people what President Barack Obama
and at least some Democrats say they want to deliver for the rest of
us: universal coverage ensuring that people with medical problems will
not become impoverished by their illness, with patients offered a
guaranteed set of services and a choice of private doctors, hospitals
and other practitioners when they need treatment.
"Medicare was a comprehensive -- and comprehensible -- program,
available throughout the country and with a core set of benefits," says
Judith Stein, director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy.
Read more of this article.Supplemental Medicare Insurance: work with a pre-screened insurer
to find the right Medicare Advantage program for you and your medical
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