Why the Government is Desperate for HealthcareReform:

I pulled out my last years W-2 to see exactly how much I was forced to contribute to Medicare: $802 of my dollars went to a program that is run by the same government that is bankrupting social security.
The problem with Medicare is that it is designed to fail. Let me explain. I'm going to use simple math to explain my calculations. I joined the professional workforce when I was 23. Before that, I still contributed to Medicare but I won't count the previous seven years. Note, I was still taxed for Medicare during those seven years. So if I retire at 65 I will have contributed for at least 42 years (504 months). If I take the $802 and divide it by 12 for a monthly contribution, I get $67. If I take 2% as a cost of capital or average return for my funds that the government will invest I get a whopping $52,853 to cover me for the rest of my life. $2,643 per year after age 65 assuming I live to 85. One surgery or one disease can wipe that all out. In other words, our system is designed to fail.
It should be perfectly clear that our Medicare insurance is supplemental. So, the people in Washington hopefully own a business calculator and can get someone to help them use it. They see that the system is not going to work, so they try to squeeze cost from the system. They start with the low hanging fruit: Doctors. Why, because they know that the public overall think that doctors are wealthy. Therefore when the evening news tells us that they are being paid 10% less, there is no sympathy.
The American people as a whole do not understand the system. The politicians, as a whole, do not understand the system. I spoke with one of the surgeons that I call on. He told me that he and his partners had an in-depth conversation with a local congresswoman. Both parties are conservative yet she wanted to keep pushing to cut Medicare spending. According to the doctor she did not understand that they were being paid from the Medicare dollars. She assumed that cutting spending in Washington was a great Conservative move. Well, it usually is unless you have a system that is nearly forcing the doctors to take the Medicare patients.
What can a doctor do? The easy answer is stop accepting Medicare. Is this a realistic solution? I can assume a lot of people would be upset if this happened. I deal with general surgeons and understand that the Medicare reimbursement on some of the most common procedures has remained constant for the past ten years. This means that they haven't had a raise in ten years. Note that they also pay their staff and overhead with this reimbursement. Expenses which are also rising because of inflation. So, would you want to go to work in a system that doesn't pay?
My whole point in this exercise is this: The representatives in congress and the senate and our executive branch do not have a clue. They do not have a solution for this any more than for social security. We are facing a huge problem. The only thing that is for sure is that it will get a lot worse before it gets better. Check out the related story from Foxnews.com : Why Doctors Are Abandoning Medicare.

Have you stopped and thought about why the government is desperate for reforming healthcare? It is simple: they are trying to cover up a huge blunder in the system. This Social Security/Medicare system is based on entitlements. Entitlements are the politicians way of buying votes ergo power. They take from the producers and give to the moochers.
Think of it like this: If you are in a life boat that you paid for, with life jackets that you paid for; the politician is determining who gets the life jackets and asking you to purchase more. The doctors are starting to say: "We can't continue to produce the life jackets for this pay!"
You better learn how to swim!

jw