Thom Hartmann: Dear President Obama: A Modest Medicare Proposal

Published on Monday, August 17, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Dear President Obama: A Modest Medicare Proposal

by Thom Hartmann


Dear President Obama,

I understand you're thinking of dumping your "public option" because of all the demagoguery by Sarah Palin and Dick Armey and Newt Gingrich and their crowd on right-wing radio and Fox. Fine. Good idea, in fact.

Instead, let's make it simple. Please let us buy into Medicare.

It would be so easy. You don't have to reinvent the wheel with this so-called "public option" that's a whole new program from the ground up. Medicare already exists. It works. Some people will like it, others won't - just like the Post Office versus FedEx analogy you're so comfortable with.

Just pass a simple bill - it could probably be just a few lines, like when Medicare was expanded to include disabled people - that says that any American citizen can buy into the program at a rate to be set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which reflects the actual cost for us to buy into it.

So it's revenue neutral! ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/08/17

They don't work exclusively for us, or in some cases, for us at all.