The Republican Cure for Our Social Ills

I will be 65 years old in a few weeks. Starting this month, the firm I retired from contributes money a year to a managed indemnity plan for my wife and me. We each pay a $1000 dollar deductible before the insurance kicks in. I'm also on Medicare Advantage so the deductible won't affect me. My wife is covered for 80% of the reasonable cost of her medical care after the $1000 deduction. We will be paying $100 per month for one of her medications for diabetes. And there is no guarantee she will find a generic med that works as good as the current one. Adding inflation, this is comparable to the results of Ryan's plan. The total cost of our insurance is about $600 per month plus the deductibles and the co-pays. The increase in cost of our prescription drugs is over $100.

Today, there are many people who skip taking heart medication, diabetes medication and other medications because they cannot afford it even with health insurance. These people have to chose between medication and food on a daily basis. Their financial condition will only get worse under Ryan's plan. We, the people, will pay the cost of every emergency room visit, every hospital stay and every operation performed on these poor people. And Ryan's Medicare plans will place many millions of people in the situation described above.

Think about that. Assume that the cost of health care will increase over the next ten years and add up the costs of health care and health insurance. Assuming you will live to be 90 years old, you would have to be a millionaire at retirement to be able to afford health insurance for the rest of your life. The average person facing retirement has a retirement account of about $88,000 dollars according to one expert on PBS. Many families are not saving much for retirement. They are using their savings to pay for their children's education.

Unskilled workers will end up working a full time job and never being able to retire because of the skyrocketing costs of health care.

Republican politicians are so idealistic. Got depression? Take something for it and get back to work. Got Schizophrenia? Get some meds and get to work. Had a very bad childhood? Get over it. Republican politicians treat every human condition like an electric switch. All you got to do is turn it off. Republican politicians are unbelievably ignorant. They see a person sitting on a porch all day and assume the person is lazy. They know absolutely nothing about that person. But they assume that solving the person's problem is easy.

Having said that, these Republican politicians are making decisions about the future of Entitlement programs. Their logic is based on emotions and bias; not on research and facts.The Republican Politicians created their own fantasy in order to provide security and rationale to their destruction of Entitlement programs.

If one of those Republican politicians become President and Ryan's budget is passed; the costs of health care and health insurance will skyrocket. We and our children and grandchildren will pay dearly for Ryan's Entitlement program plan.

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Portions of this opinion was published by me in comments on Facebook and Twitter.

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