Will ObamaCare kill Medicare?

• Author: Vliet, Elizabeth Lee
• Position: Medicine & Health

MEDICARE was signed into law July 31, 1965, by Pres. Lyndon Johnson. Unlike ObamaCare, Medicare had broad bipartisan support. It is Title 18 of the Social Security Act. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is in charge, but the nuts-and-bolts administration is in the hands of regional private carriers.

Medicare is a single payer in that funding comes from the taxpayers, but it is like ObamaCare in preserving a lucrative role for private cronies, the "carriers" who receive and disburse government money. ObamaCare is like Medicare in that most new enrollees are subsidized heavily by taxpayers--except that Medicare beneficiaries paid into the program through payroll taxes.

There was trouble right away with an explosion in Medicare costs, resulting in almost immediate violation of the original legislative promise of no interference with physician decisionmaking, or with their compensation. Yet, seniors still face big out-of-pocket costs, so many of them purchase MediGap policies. Part D was added because of the lack of Medicare coverage for drugs.

Still, Medicare has served seniors well in many ways over these 51 years. Thus, few have complained about the lack of an alternative, or the fact that seniors must enroll in Medicare Part A if they want their Social Security benefits.

The question is: will Medicare be able to continue to provide the care today's seniors expect? The answer is an unequivocal no. About 10,000 Baby Boomers will turn 65 every day for the next 20 years, causing an explosion in costs and demand for medical services. Yet, ObamaCare lopped $716,000,000,000 out of the Medicare budget. Cuts in seniors' care are to pay for expanded Medicaid for younger people, including free contraception and taxpayer-funded abortions. Medicare cuts are unevenly distributed across the country. California tops the list of cuts at $61,000,000,000; Florida, $44,000,000,000; Texas, $43,000,000,000; New York, $40,000,000,000; Pennsylvania, $28,000,000,000; and Ohio, $21,000,000,000.

There already is a shortage of doctors at a time when the number of Medicare patients is rising sharply. Doctors are reducing the Medicare patients they can take due to rapidly increasing and costly regulatory burdens and lower payments. The ObamaCare cuts in Medicare's budget reduce payments to hospitals, home health and hospice services, cancer treatment centers, doctors, and other professionals. Patients...