I agree that younger insureds must pay part of the cost going forward or the cost of the baby boomer spike will corrupt the economics of the system. I have heard this described as the mesa effect, meaning that costs rise as boomers near retirement and flatten into about a 12 year cycle of deficit spend before the boomers begin to die off and the spend returns to a more normalized rate that is more easily managed. What the Ryan budget proposes is throwing the system permanently and irrevocably under the bus to avoid simply dealing with the 12 year cylic abberation spawned by WWII. Not too bright, in my opinion.
The "fly in the ointment" is runaway healthcare cost inflation. This is usually blamed on the high costs of new technology and pharmacology. That is a totally LAME excuse, IMHO. A LOT of new technology, and surely the diagnostics it supports, costs way less than previous regimens. ISRG is just one example which you and I previously discussed. The real Achilles Heel in healthcare spend is driven by a generation of young people ignoring wellness, proper diet, weight management, unwillingness to have diagnosed or pharmacology-controlled challenges treated and American's sad unwillingness to exercise. Many of them bleat and moan about mandatory healthcare costs (cuts into their spend on video games and recreational drugs)... but guess who will be the first in line at the ER in 15-20 years when diabetes, heart disease or stroke creates a medical emergency of enormous dimension.
I have a friend who is an MD and on the board of a local hospital. He tells me recurrently about HIS patients that decline to treat curable conditions by either taking prescriptions or applying discipline to their lifestyle. He recently had one die in the ER on his shift. He is HAUNTED by the experience.
"W" in his tenure had a really great idea... give younger taxpayers an opportunity to opt out of Social Security and invest in the stock market. It suffered from the same fatal flaw as Romney/Ryan's voucher adventure... it ignored the boomer mesa, and would serve to abandon those that fought in WWII to preserve the Free World for them to enjoy.
Just my personal ramblings...
Yank
AI
