Medicare and Social Security are dying, as the Social Security entitlement will be dead by 2016 and Medicare will follow to its grave a year after that. Sorry to play Miss Cleo, but unfortunately, it’s true. The money that many have paid into the system will be spent on benefits and shoddy health care coverage with no additional private insurance choices.
Dick Armey wrote an op-ed, which appeared in yesterday’s Washington Examiner that explains the thugocracy of the Social Security Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services are trying to prevent seniors from opting out of Medicare Part A. Why would the government deny the right to choose whether to take Part A or utilize private coverage? Well, it threatens universal health care, and the government will have no part in taking away from their pet initiative.
“Having some percentage of seniors pay for their own hospitalization coverage would seem like a gift to the cash-strapped Medicare program. From a financial standpoint, the more seniors who choose this option the better.
But the government will have no part of it. Why? Perhaps because doing so could undermine the push for universal health care.”
Armey digs a little deeper into the heart of this issue by saying that there is NO law that says Social Security recipients need to take Medicare as their sole health coverage. However, the Social Security Administration has created more bureaucratic red tape with their decision to deny Social Security benefits, if seniors do not accept Medicare Part A.
In fact, it is the bureaucratic red tape and the government intrusion that has caused Armey and four other defendants to pursue a lawsuit that will challenge the thuggish decisions of the government, which prevent seniors from making their own choices when it comes to health care.
“There can only be two possible explanations for this: incompetence or arrogance. Take your choice. Neither enhances one’s confidence in government health bureaucrats or strengthens the administration’s case for universal health insurance overseen by Washington.
The current policy not only violates the right of individuals to make their own health choices, but violates Social Security and Medicare law.”
With the Federal government thinking they can hold the monopoly on health care coverage for seniors, it is only limiting the choices that many seniors have on their health care. Welcome to the thugocracy of the Social Security Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services.
