Why? When it comes to overhead as a percentage of benefits paid, social security completely blows the doors off of mutual funds and other privately run retirement savings vehicles. It has been financially stable, with adjustments from time to time, for more than 70 years and will remain stable for another 70 if they make a few more adjustments. It has prevented untold numbers of Americans from falling into poverty. And it has done all of this while simultaneously funding other parts of the government.

That sounds like a pretty good system to me. In fact, social security is one of the greatest achievements in the history of mankind.

This 2004 CBO report has some age on it, but I think its basic points remain in force: http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/52xx/doc5277/Report.pdf

The medicare crisis has everything to do with excessive government regulation. Medicare as it is currently entitled, is the largest payor of medical bills in the country. How medicare pays medical bills for individuals is a huge driver of the costs of health care. For instance, if medicare pays $50 for a service that costs $200 (it pays at that level because you can't refuse to take what Medicare pays unless you refuse to treat medicare patients) where does the other $150 come from? It is passed around to other paying patients. The cost doesn't just disappear, does it? Its a cost after all, and can't just disappear, or be written off. That passing of costs drives insurance premiums system wide. Ryan's plan is a way for the cost of treatment to be met by actual payments to medical providers using a pool system that has been in continuous development as an economic concept for over 400 years. Ryan's premium support pays insurers a fixed amount based on the actual costs of care associated with individuals in the pool. The premium support will not be universally applied - it will be means tested. This is a good thing. Who here thinks it a good idea to use government budget lines to pay for the health care of the wealthy?

Further it cannot be said that he is asking for things that didn't work before. Private health insurance works quite well. That a lot of people aren't in the private health insurance system is a matter which deserves attention but not necessarily the destruction of the private health insurance system.

Another very important thing about rising medical costs: medical technology advances aren't free and they aren't stagnant. Who can argue that medicine should always be the same price? More is done for patients today than ever before - I for one, am happy to pay more for the stuff that keeps me alive. Personally I am in treatment for ailments which killed my ancestors at a young age. I have the private health insurance system to thank for that - sure government may have been able to provide the funding to make those advances that I benefit from, but my money is on the profit motive as incentive to do more with less.

Live long and prosper.

__________________
DS
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Las Vegas NV

Ryan specifically leaves SS out of the budget. He said that it will be fixed separate from the other programs. Medicare is the big driver of the budget precisely because it wasn't funded like SS or a separate trust. As I stated earlier, congress has been punting on medicare all along.

__________________
DS
2010 CL550 - Heaven help me but it's beautiful
87 300D a labor of love
11 GLK 350 So far, so good
08 E350 4matic, Love it.
99 E320 too rusted, sold
87 260E Donated to Newgate School
www.Newgateschool.org - check it out.
12 Ford Escape, sold, forgotten
87 300D, sold, what a mistake
06 Passat 2.0T, PITA, sold

Las Vegas NV

Hate the rich, blah blah blah.

Tax cuts for the wealthy..emm Reward the leeches?
Who creates Jobs the poor?
It's the business sector that's proping up America and libs hate it.
Big business Bad...Big business go away! Yeah to china.
Gees Dems kill me.

Why is that method limited to private companies? Why can't the government use the same methods?Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D are both based on private insurance policies and neither has resulted in lower costs, based on what I have read and heard. Why does he think his plan will do any better?

Another example of a flawed Ryan assumption is that reducing taxes on the wealthy will increase revenue. Reagan tried that. It didn't work.

Ryan has other flawed assumptions, but those are the only ones I can remember at the moment.I didn't mean to suggest otherwise.That's a fair argument, but I am not sure it's the one Paul Ryan is making.

If we accept the notion that the government should at least try to provide medical care to people who can't afford it, then we should reject Ryan's plan and instead look for ways to keep inflation of medical costs more in line with inflation generally. IMHO.

That's one of the few areas where Ryan makes sense to me. My post was in response to MSFowler's comment that social security was not fiscally sound.

I'd argue that government is responsible for enough let alone health insurance. If government was the answer I really believe the soviet union wouldn't have failed and china wouldn't be adopting capitalist economics.

This point can and has been argued. If you look at reduced tax rates over a 10 year period or more, they work to increase revenue. Short term, no.

Government's attempts at keeping medical costs in line with inflation have resulted in the backward pay system now in place that forces medical providers to accept less than the cost of services. That method has exascerbated the problem and ultimately will bankrupt the medical system since politicians won't be able to spend enough to serve all patients. That system hasn't reduced the cost of services one whit. It has however, allowed congress to say that they are handling the problem when in fact they aren't.

People will have to accept that medical costs cannot keep pace with an artificial benchmark such as the published inflation rate which in reality means little. Price controls have been tried- remember Nixon, and ww2? Both periods in which price controls were attempted and didn't work (both times resulted in a price correction as soon as controls were lifted). Sorry to go all capitalist on you, but the market is the only means to keep prices of anything low.

One can say the "price of medicine is too high", on the one hand, and "we should provide medical care for the poor" on the other - but they are really two distinct things aren't they? And it's important to address them separately. The way to reduce medical costs is to encourage competition in the health care industry and that will allow us to provide medical care for the poor, in that order, please.

__________________
DS
2010 CL550 - Heaven help me but it's beautiful
87 300D a labor of love
11 GLK 350 So far, so good
08 E350 4matic, Love it.
99 E320 too rusted, sold
87 260E Donated to Newgate School
www.Newgateschool.org - check it out.
12 Ford Escape, sold, forgotten
87 300D, sold, what a mistake
06 Passat 2.0T, PITA, sold

Las Vegas NV

I don't think that is apples-to-apples. It's too much of a leap in logic to go from allowing the government to do what it does well (e.g., social security) to having a government dominated by a small group run every aspect of life.Can you cite any examples? I have not studied the issue in detail.I agree on that, but that doesn't mean that there aren't other solutions.Therefore we should remove all regulation in this area?

What, you don't think we should comment on the aesthetic appearance and should stick to substantive issues? Great idea. Now you may have an inkling as to teh sarcasm with which I greeted the OP.

WGAS what he looks like? I don't. Apparently the author of the OP does because he devoted so many words to it, and others jumped in to agree. Perhaps you should take-up your cause with them, not me?

I'm glad that you've managed to make it this far with a poorly developed ability to read non verbal communication. If some slick POS came home with your daughter, announcing impending engagement, and your every instinct told you he was almost sleazy enough to be a pimp, I suppose you'd gamely shake hands and wait for him to describe his policy positions on foreign policy, and if it sounded good, give them your blessing.

A patient and wise person doesn't have the sort of eager, bright eyed belief in themselves that Romney and Ryan display. Some self esteem is needed. Too much is not good.

Ryan and Romney are zealots. It's now how handsome or not they are, not the aesthetic appearance, it's the attitude. I can harldy believe you actually don't get this.

I'll be real surprised if Romney is ever made POTUS. The American people don't like his vibe, man. That's been made clear already. Ryan sets my back teeth on edge, sorry.

__________________
1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Yeah right. I've known a lot of racists who use precisely that same line, Bubba.

Stop the presses! Politicians are creepy. Film at 11.

You never got back to us with reasons why you think that social security is not well run.

A huge problem is that typical political punting has hamstringed the SS system. When created, the average life expectancy was 65; it's now 78 or so. Benefit triggers have effectively been made to promise more than the system was designed to deliver. I think it's a good idea to have SS and I look forward to recieving the payments, after all, I've paid a lot into it and I've been promised those payments. I also think it's insane to consider cutting it substantially and have not heard ANY politician suggest it. Cut it for the rich, yes. But it is really not designed for them anyway, and never was.

Honus, you also asked if we should remove all regulation on insurance and I would not advocate that. I would remove FEDERAL regulation on insurance and let the states handle it. Without getting into a big constitutional argument, I believe it's clear that the federal gov't doesn't regulate anything very well (including SS as stated above). The states have very advanced regulatory bodies overseeing the insurance industry right now that can and do work well - no regulation needs to be created, no money spent to create further burdens on the industry, it's all there already.

There is a myth out there that the elderly, because they use a lot of healthcare services, are uninsurable. Not so. The federal gov't and some insurers sold us a bill of goods when they created a giant bureaucracy to pay the health bills of seniors - but there are plenty of people who can pay their own way - and they should and regular insurance should be available to them to do it.

As for long term benefits to the economy of lower taxes - call me radical, but the less money we give the gov't the more we have to do with productively. But, and this is a big but, the gov't cannot borrow to make up the difference. It must not devalue the currency or borrow from foreign countries to pay bills. That sets the system up for inflation and you really don't want that - remember 1979-82? We're on track for that again, except this time it will be worse. The inflation rate is not truthfully calculated by the gov't and there is no interest from them in being accurate about this. Inflation, or the devaluing of the currency is and has been going on for awhile. I believe the reckoning is upon us. Expect 15% interest rates within 2-4 years, but definately after 2012 elections.

I support Ryan's plan because it's the only one, ever, which has gone against the tide of devaluing the dollar and reducing the ever expanding federal gov't. I doubt that he'll get much of what is proposed - so be ready for a wild ride, and much higher prices for everything.

__________________
DS
2010 CL550 - Heaven help me but it's beautiful
87 300D a labor of love
11 GLK 350 So far, so good
08 E350 4matic, Love it.
99 E320 too rusted, sold
87 260E Donated to Newgate School
www.Newgateschool.org - check it out.
12 Ford Escape, sold, forgotten
87 300D, sold, what a mistake
06 Passat 2.0T, PITA, sold

Las Vegas NV

We see the issue so completely differently that discussion is pointless.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags