When someone gets a SS check there is a huge deduction for Medicare and in order to be properly covered an individual has to have a Medicare supplement plan.
My question is this------------As high as the Medicare SS deduction is (on a % basis), and given that a senior will pay at LEAST $550 for a Medicare premium, and at LEAST $150-$350 for the supplement insurance plan the minimum they can get by with is $700 a month in total.
There is NO WAY for one to buy adequate insurance for $700 a month--------so the rest is covered by the government---------isn't that already a voucher system?
Most people have been paying into the system during their work lives. The costs of medical care have been rapidly rising during this time and will probably continue to rise after they are no longer paying into the system. Whether the government is collecting enough money to cover the true costs of the program is really secondary to your argument. The answer is yes, the government is already heavily involved in paying for and controlling costs for the majority of the users of the medical system. Old folks have the most need for serious medical care. Old folks really wouldn't be able to afford health insurance on the open market because the actuarial tables would prove out that they would be very expensive risks for insurance companies.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I was going to say, we contribute all our working lives before collecting benefits. Always annoyed me to hear people whining "I've contributed all my life, I deserve all the promised benefits" THinking that they have full funded their benefits when they haven't. Ironically, people my age on average will get less than we put in because we are paying for the luxurious benefits others are collecting.
DeleteI wonder if anyone is really paying for the true costs of this system though LS. Nohelp has been making the argument for a long time that the government is a money creator and can really afford as many things as it wants. There has been some control of the amount of services that it offers, but everyone can get something.
DeleteIt's called an entitlement plan, just like SS. So says the Supreme Court.
DeleteYou pay but are not entitled to anything.
Two cents time. I'll just throw in that there's no income ceiling for the HI portion of FICA, so the 1.45% + match, means a 20K taxable income results in $580/year into HI, and a 1M taxable income results in $29,000 into HI.
DeleteInsolvency?
Fairness?
Sorry, Carol. A little off-point.
Consider an average-wage two-earner couple together earning $89,000 a year. Upon retiring in 2011, they would have paid $114,000 in Medicare payroll taxes during their careers. But they can expect to receive medical services – including prescriptions and hospital care – worth $355,000, or about three times what they put in. [...]
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nationalreview.com/corner/256212/medicare-and-social-security-what-you-pay-vs-what-you-will-get-maybe-veronique-de-rugy
Iouman,
DeleteFor what it's worth, I couldn't come up with a number even close to the $114,000 mentioned in the article.
but keep in mind that it was a stronger $ when they put it in..
DeleteJean,
ReplyDeleteThe basis 114K is over a life time.
89K contributions:
Social Security: $ 9,256
Medicare: 2,581
2591 x 47 years = 121K
18-65 yrs. old.
Can you make 89K a year working at McDonalds???