Category: General
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Myths about Medicare, the Deficit, and Consumer Choice
Before Medicare began in 1965, many American senior citizens – and their children – struggled to pay for their doctor bills. Ever since, Medicare’s been an American success story. Why, then, do so many Beltway pundits and members of Congress – including Mitt Romney’s running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, – go after it? Some of…
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Medicare Losses Today and Tomorrow
The single largest transfer payment that the government makes is to the Medicare program. For the calendar year of 2011, the Medicare premium and interest receipts were $306.7 billion, while the expenditures were $549.1 billion, requiring a draw on the general funds of the government of $242.4 billion.
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Our Children, Our Caregivers?
In a Huffington Post blog Ann Brenoff asked, “Is childlessness felt more when you hit middle age?” Her premise was that many childless people (i.e., women) worry that by having chosen not to have children in their 20s and 30s, they closed off the possibility of having a caregiver in their old age. Earlier Jane…
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Old versus Young in Japan
If you read about a country with economic problems where “already indecisive leaders [are] loath to upset retirees from the baby boom who make up more than a quarter of the population and tend to vote in high numbers,” you might guess that the article was about the U.S. and Medicare. It’s not. It’s about…
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A New Voice by and for the Medicare Population
Welcome to Over 65! This is a blog by and for those in the Medicare population (along with a few younger contributors) who want a stronger voice in decisions made about and for us–and for the younger generations that we created. It’s an idea created by a bioethicist (Daniel Callahan), a psychiatrist (Jim Sabin) and…