Medicare Exceptionalism

[phantom power]

Here’s your Medicare myth of the day: It turns out that a majority of Americans believe that retirees get about as much from Medicare as they pay in during their lifetimes. Or maybe even less.

As it turns out, this is precisely the opposite of the truth. The best estimate out there suggests that a single male will pay $60,000 in Medicare taxes over his lifetime and receive $170,000 in benefits during retirement.1 That’s a 3:1 benefit ratio—and the numbers are more favorable for women and way more favorable for couples. Medicare is just about the most amazing bargain imaginable. Most of us don’t come within a country mile of actually paying for all the care we get.

I’ve had a guy in his 80′s, who’s had a quadruple bypass and a bunch of other expensive procedures, tell me that he “paid for” his Medicare. This little bit of ignorance is the foundation underneath all the teabagger fairy tales about Medicare not being a “government program”. These people honestly believe that the relative pittance they’ve paid over their lives (especially considering that many of them started paying in their 40′s and 50′s) makes their Medicare something other than what they would call a “handout”.

As long as Medicare Exceptionalism persists in the minds of voters, Democrats are waging class warfare with one hand tied behind their backs. By the Republicans’ own definition, pretty much everyone over 65, otherwise know as “the Republican base”, is a moocher or a looter, as bad or worse than young bucks buying T-bones with food stamps. It’s just that their chosen conveyance is a welfare Rascal instead of a welfare Cadillac.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2013/09/13/medicare-exceptionalism/

[DURHAM D]

1. In this analysis does the first dollar I paid into

the program 47 years ago count the same as a dollar that I pay in today?

[SheilaT]

2. People need to actually read their statement of earnings

from Social Security. Especially for someone now over 80, what he paid in compared to what he's getting back out is an amazing difference.

I got vested in Social Security by the time I was 30, Two years in the mid-70's I maxed out on the Social Security deduction for the last two paychecks of the year. Then I got married, had kids, basically didn't work for about 25 years, then got divorced and I'm back in the workforce. I'll probably start collecting Social Security next year when I turn 66, and I'll receive back all that both I and my employers paid in to the system in about 2 years. Of course, the dollars paid in back in the 1970's were worth a lot more, but I don't look at it that way. I just look at the dollar amount.

As for Medicare, I am enormously healthy, so I might not use much more than the total paid into that system if I keep on the way I am. Except that almost everyone incurs expenses at the end of life, so who knows?

Personally, I don't begrudge others good medical care, because I'm very aware of what great fortune I have in my good health. Just because I never get sick I shouldn't want someone else to get medicine or surgery or whatever?

The real change -- and it's been slow and insidious -- over the past 40 years has been from trying to spread the wealth and the benefits to all, to waging war on those who seem to get more than their fair share. Except that war is never waged against the truly wealthy, but against those with a good union, or a job that provides good benefits, especially retirement.

Keep in mind that the years when we had the very best economic growth in this country were those when the marginal tax rates were the highest and those at the lower rungs were getting more and more of a fair share.

Oh. And not everyone over 65 is a Republican.

[oldhippie]

3. So I guess someone else ...

... is paying that other 2/3. As long as they do that everything is OK.