Medicare premiums increasing for the affluent

The government is raising Medicare premiums for individuals with more than $80,000 in income.

Sounds like a move in the right direction. How is it fair that young poor people are taxed so that rich old people get practically free healthcare?

If anything, this doesn't go far enough. If an old person has $40,000 of income, I don't see why he should pay only one quarter of what a young person has to pay for healthcare.

Comments

[christy]

I agree. Let's face it, these people are on their way out anyway.

[Dan Morgan]

Christy is too funny.

I think that the arguments HS is making will be heard much more in years to come. Medicare and Social Security as designed are unsustainable over the long haul. They are way too dependent on the ratio of workers to retirees. A lot of angry workers are in our future.

The US lags behind in trying to reform these policies. Instead, Medicare was just expanded!

In Australia, the Labor Party years ago converted their Social Security system into a private system - the exact opposite of what the Democrats support in the US.

Both Social Security and Medicare should be privatized using mandatory Retirement Saving Accounts and mandatory Health Savings Accounts. The money is saved for retirement use only.

Actually, these reforms should have been done years ago. Every year it gets harder to do.