Hillary is taking a sledgehammer to Medicare. In a move calculated to fire up the extreme left wing of the Democratic Party, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton pledges to open Medicare to people 55 to 64, and to make a “public option” insurance plan for all ages.
The 65-and-overs are already having a hard time finding a doctor willing to accept Medicare’s stingy payments. Hillary’s proposals will suddenly invite in millions more patients competing for the same doctors. Seniors, brace yourselves for long waits to see a doctor.
Medicare is stretched so thin to meet the needs of today’s seniors that expanding enrollment is like inviting the neighborhood for dinner when you don’t have enough food to feed your own kids.
Over a fifth of doctors currently are turning away new Medicare patients, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey. Hillary’s scheme would add a massive segment of the population to Medicare’s ranks. It’s likely 10 million new people would sign up — a sudden 20 percent increase in patients knocking on doctors’ doors for appointments.
A public option would compound the problem. A public option is a government-run insurance plan. It would be offered alongside established commercial plans like Cigna, WellCare and Humana but it would pay doctors and hospitals at Medicare-like rates.
President Obama claims it will “deliver care more cost-effectively.”
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Don't worry, she'll bring in many more foreigners and train them to be doctors, at taxpayers' expense, of course.
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin predicted this in 08.
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