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Post by Gene on Jan 26, 2017 6:08:04 GMT -5
I know it sounds far-fetched, but think about it -- the plumbing is already there. You know those little sprinkler-looking things that appear in the ceiling of every room or up high on the walls? Yep.
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Post by jondough on Jan 26, 2017 9:39:20 GMT -5
You guys make this way too difficult.
You just start a new medical plan for 62 & older.
Its called Kavorkiancare
P.S. Thanks a lot Gene. I'll never look at a fire sprinkler head the same now.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2017 10:08:17 GMT -5
If you don't think that Medicare has huge unfunded liabilities, then you are not worth talking to. Good bye and good riddance. Well of course Medicare has huge unfunded liabilities. Depriving elders of health care is not the only solution, however. One, but not the only. Another solution would be to increase your Medicare taxes, which I, personally, would vote in favor of. Another would be to reform medical malpractice litigation. Another would be to reform FDA oversight of medical/pharmaceutical research to improve speed to market while maintaining appropriate safeguards. Another would be to institute age-triggered mandatory elder-care centers in which each bedroom is actually a gas chamber. Let's take a look at the options you mention: 1) more FICA taxes. It's a regressive tax already, costs businesses a lot of money, which gets added to end prices of a firm's products. So it is inflationary. On the employee side of FICA, an increase would be income reducing. Not a good combo for the economy clearly. Is just a transfer of wealth from all sectors to the healthcare sector, with NO productivity gains since the folks getting the healthcare are retired (not productive). 2) Malpractice litigation. I agree that the insurance doctors et al have to carry for this risk is a large cost sink. But I can't see how the gvmt can put a cap on litigation settlements without it being unconstitutional. 3) Speed up FDA approval. Might be able to get some cost savings here for healthcare companies, but probably quite small relative to rest of R&D costs. Remember that it's not only the US which has out of control unfunded liabilities from old folks healthcare. It's a problem in almost every country in the West. And that is in spite of all of those other countries being able to buy American healthcare technology for much cheaper costs than it is sold for in the US. And they are able to do this by free-riding off of being a marginally accretive customer. Meaning that it is impossible for the US to get the same prices as this other countries.
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