Obamacare vs. Medicare: It's almost impossible to pick up a newspaper the last two weeks without reading a breathless story warning seniors not to buy insurance on a healthcare exchange (which is a fancy name for web site) such as the Massachusetts Healthcare Insurance Connector--see NOTE. I wrote a post about this subject last month entitled "On Medicare? Don't Worry about Obamacare," but just in case it's not clear: "If you are on Medicare, forget about Obamacare." (I find these reminders insulting so sorry if I insulted you by repeating the obvious.)
Medicare Is Welfare: Another story making the rounds in the mainstream press in the last few days -- based on some very dubious research out of the Harvard School of Public Health -- basically claims that Medicare is welfare, that we seniors are not paying our fair share. Specifically the stories claim that seniors get $3 in benefits for every $1 contributed to the Medicare trust funds. Harvard itself didn't do the $3 for $1 research but references the New York Times, which in turn references some old data from an organization called the Urban Institute (that's why I call the Harvard research dubious; no respectable research would reference a newspaper).
Don't believe these news articles:
- If you worked for 45-50 years like those of us just now retiring, you paid for your Medicare through both Medicare payroll taxes and income taxes.
- If you are a little older, you paid through your income taxes and your Medicare payroll taxes for the years that you worked that Medicare existed. Your insurance was subsidized a little bit by government funding -- but not $3 for $1 -- and that's the way LBJ, Wilbur Mills and Senator Kerr designed Medicare. The option would have been to wait until we baby boomers retired before the payouts began.
- If you are on Medicare because you are disabled, you probably still contributed at some point and that's the way insurance is supposed to work: some people need insurance sooner than others and I am sure you are not happy you are one of those that needed it sooner.
- And almost all of us are still paying at the rate of over $100 a month
What I think: I can't figure out what this Harvard you-seniors-didn't-pay-for-Medicare propaganda campaign is all about but don't believe it. And I find these constant reminders about Medicare vs. Obamacare insulting. We seniors have been using a web site to get different Medicare options for years. We understand that many non-seniors sign up for their healthcare insurance this time of year. We have been paying our fair share. I almost believe the government is trying to confuse us seniors.
NOTE: These web sites have different names in different states.
