Republicans vs The Elderly

By TRB

It wasn't really all that long ago that we learned a certain truth about U.S. insurance companies.

We learned that insurance was like Las Vegas; the entire thing was rigged so that the insurance companies couldn't lose. Sure they made pay-outs and covered their losses like any business, but every year they made a profit and their profits kept growing as they eliminated something they called "risk." This was anything that threatened their bottom line.

In the 1950s their bottom line was really threatened, particularly by a group of people who, because of advances in medical care, suddenly began to live longer lives. You would think this would be great for insurance companies. People who didn't die as quickly, could make more payments and in the end the insurance companies would come out ahead as they always did. But it didn't work that way. People lived longer, developed chronic illnesses and had to be cared for. And that costs money.

You don't have to move to Louisiana and wait for the levy to break during a hurricane to know that insurance companies don't like to lose money. They will call flood damage hurricane damage and wind damage flood damage to get out of paying a penny.

You only have to know that insurance companies, banks and financial institutions are doing their best right now, through their Republican robots and the Congress and Chamber of Commerce, which they virtually own, to transform this nation from an economy of capitalism to one of "corporatism."

So people living longer lives wasn't a great deal for insurance companies. It expanded greatly the costs of their medical care. As people lived longer they developed some medical problems that had to be cared for on a regular basis, usually out-patient. They also began to fill beds at nursing homes that couldn't be built fast enough to accommodate them. Yes, the medical sciences had taken some giant strides, people were living longer lives. It was like a miracle.

But it was a nightmare to your local private insurance company because the scam was beginning to unravel. They might even lose money.They couldn't afford to pay the medical bills of all these chronic-care patients, even with the enormous government subsidies. What would their Boards say? For awhile the insurance companies tried to do a half-ass job of it, spending as little as possible, The terrible care received by our elderly did not go unnoticed.Three separate Presidents tried to enact a Medicare/Medicaid law during their administrations - Truman, Kennedy and Johnson.

It was Johnson who won the victory and handed over the first Medicare card in history to former President Harry Truman in 1965. Johnson signed it himself.

So for nearly half a century our elderly have had this guaranteed government health benefit. They have been able to plan the end of their lives around it. Medicare and Medicaid are an important part of our society and how we look at ourselves and the world. Essential, in fact.

Now along comes a legislator from Wisconsin, a state that will probably be as Democrat as Massachusetts once all the recalls and failed attempts at reelection demolish the states's Republican party. This Wisconsin Republican is named Paul Ryan. If you live in Wisconsin you should probably get a piece of paper write his name on it and tape it to an appliance. Just so you don't forget not to vote for him.

The day before yesterday he released a plan to balance the budget - on the backs of the elderly and poor people. Also in this plan of his is a promise to lower taxes for the most wealthy. But his first priority is to get rid of Medicare and Medicaid, the two government programs people like more than any others. For example, in a poll taken by the conservative Wall Street Journal just last week, 76 percent of Americans said it would be "unacceptable" to get rid of either program.

And indeed it would be. Ryan will never - in his lifetime - see the end of Medicare. In fact it will probably take care of him in his final years. The idea of Ryan's dead-in-the-water legislation is just to bring the subject up, to get the media out there talking about it. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing afterall. At least that's what Ryan would like.

So how would Ryan replace Medicare and Medicaid? With roughly the same system the U.S. had half-a-century ago. In other words he would have the government subsidize the insurance companies to take care of the elderly. It would devolve back to the days of bad medical care of the type that influenced President Johnson to create Medicare in the first place.

Incredibly the politician Ryan calls his plan the "moral thing to do." Apparently Ryan doesn't know that the average elderly person over 65 makes just $19,000 a year in this counrty. That would call for a lot of subsidizing if Medicare was suddenly turned over to private insurance companies. Yes, it is a moral issue - fill the pockets of the rich and take it out on the old people

Ryan hasn't come up with any miracle plan to save the U.S. economy. No. He simply wants to shift the costs to the weak, the ill, the poor, something the "moral" Republicans - the "family values" crowd - would do tomorrow if they could.