This was a real dream I had last night.
I was in Washington DC. My father and brother, both staunch Republicans were with me. We were touring the the monuments on the Mall. That was when someone announced that the Republicans and Democrats had come to a deal on raising the debt ceiling.
Great news! said my father.
Fantastic news! said my brother.
What? I asked. What was the deal?
They agreed to finally fix Social Security and Medicare, I was told.
Fix how? I asked.
Something about vouchers, my father said. All I know is it won’t affect my benefits.
And I get my tax rate cut to 25%, said my brother, a highly compensated senior executive for a telecom mega-corporation (which in fact he is in real life, not just in my dreams).
But what about me? I said. [Wife’s name here] and I are unable to work because of our disabilities.
You’re the ex-lawyer. You tell me, said my father.
Last I heard the Republicans in Congress had passed a budget to eliminate health care reform …
Great! said my Dad. Last thing we needed was that socialist atrocity, Obamacare.
But Dad, I said, if heath care reform and medicare is eliminated, I won’t be able to get the same health care coverage from a private provider that you receive from the government. Like you, I have a history of heart disease and I also suffer from a rare autoimmune disorder. [My wife’s name here] is a pancreatic cancer survivor who suffered brain damage and loss of cognitive function because of her chemo treatments. Our daughter has ADHD and had asthma as a child.
Those are pre-existing conditions. Under the health care reform law, private insurance companies can’t discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions. Eliminate health care reform and medicare and no that no insurance company in the world will insure your beloved granddaughter, your daughter-in-law or me, your son for those health issues, if they will insure us for anything at all. All the vouchers in the world won’t help me.
Well son, I’ll be dead by then. You’ll just have to figure it out on your own. I’m sure the free market will figure something out. Private companies are far more efficient than Government, you know. They have to be.
I don’t think you understand, I said. Insurance companies are making massive profits by denying claims. A lot of of them spend more than 30% of their revenues on “administrative costs” like excessive salaries for their top executives.
The free market is doing a lousy job of providing health care right now. The insurance companies’ managed care schemes and the virtual monopolies health insurance companies have in most parts of our country created a system that has dramatically increased our health care costs far in excess of what other developed nations pay, all of which have universal health care coverage.
We pay around 16% of our GDP on health care because of that and if current trends continue in a few years we will be paying nearly 20% of our GDP for health care. Only universal health care (preferably a single payer plan like Medicare for all) offers any chance of getting those costs under control while providing decent health care to all our citizens. Right now, over 50 million people are uninsured, many of them mothers and children …
Oh that, can’t be true, interrupted my Dad, or I would have heard about it from Fox News. Look, let me tell you about how much I have to pay under Medicare …
Dad, last I checked you pay less than $3000 a year on heath care compared to what I pay which is over $20,000 out of pocket the last two years, even though we are still covered by [my wife’s] ex-employer’s health care plan since she is technically a retiree. But that company could slash retiree’s health care benefits anytime they like.
Well, that’s not really my problem son. I paid taxes to the government for years and I earned the benefits I get.
You paid far less for social security taxes and medicare taxes than I did Dad. President Reagan raised the rates on both Medicare and Social Security taxes a few years before you retired. And your employers all those years paid one half of your FICA taxes. I was a partner in my law firm until my disability and had to pay the full amount of FICA taxes.
My Dad was tired of arguing with me. Look son, this isn’t really my problem. Why don’t you ask your brother for some help should you need it?
Hey, said my brother, don’t look at me. I have my own family to look out for. I shouldn’t have to pay for a bunch of lazy do-nothing unemployed people like you. No offense intended, but you shouldn’t have gotten sick when you did. You know I always told you that your health would have been better if you had just been more positive about things. A positive mental attitude can do wonders you know.
Besides, he continued, I don’t have time right now to worry about your problems, I have much bigger ones of my own. I worry that the Tea Party people in Congress will think their leadership gave up too much to Obama in these negotiations. If they don’t approve the deal I have to find out a safe haven for my investment portfolio if the the debt ceiling isn’t raised.
Maybe I should switch the money I have in T-Bills and put it into Asian stocks in China and South Korea. What do you think?
That’s when I woke up to my alarm going off. Funny thing, but I heard on NPR that President Obama is meeting with the Republicans today regarding the debt ceiling negotiations. I sure hope the President and the Democrats don’t make my nightmare become a reality, this year or the next, by “compromising” with these right wing zealots, like Paul Ryan, to do away with my social security and medicare benefits.
