Medicare Gets New Lease On Life; Social Security Program Remains Healthy

[wanaberetiree]

Just FYI: Medicare Gets New Lease On Life; Social Security Program Remains Healthy

 

[REWahoo]

Blasphemy. Someone posted an article with a theme other than "the end is nigh". This forum is really going to hell...

 

[MasterBlaster]

If you buy into the trust-fund tale then what they say is true. However anyone who doesn't see big big problems on the horizon just isn't paying attention.

 

[bbbamI]

Well...that didn't last long...

I didn't want to feel good about anything today anyway....

 

[samclem]

Well, rather than whine about a potential problem, I suggest we each take corrective action. From the article:

The program will need to start spending from its trust fund in 2025, with that fund becoming exhausted in 2037, which is consistent with last year's estimate. . . . At that point, even if Congress took no action, Social Security could still pay out 78 percent of expected benefits from annual revenues. "That would be a bad result, but it is a far cry from having no benefits at all," he said.

The way is clear--those of us who can biologically produce a child need to do it. There's no time to waste. If you get busy now, there's no reason you can't produce another SS tax payer within 12 months--somebody who will be earning good money 26 years from now, just as the "trust fund" runs out. For the next 30 years or so we should be in good shape.

The "make a baby to save the Ponzi scheme" program needs a motto, and maybe a mascot. I leave that for others.

If you can't make a baby, please import one.

 

[FUEGO]

The way is clear--those of us who can biologically produce a child need to do it. There's no time to waste. If you get busy now, there's no reason you can't produce another SS tax payer within 12 months--somebody who will be earning good money 26 years from now, just as the "trust fund" runs out.

If you can't make a baby, please import one.

I'll try the first suggestion tonight!

As to the second suggestion, maybe we should rethink our immigration policy. We do need more SS payers after all.

 

[Koolau]

Well, rather than whine about a potential problem, I suggest we each take corrective action. From the article:

The way is clear--those of us who can biologically produce a child need to do it. There's no time to waste. If you get busy now, there's no reason you can't produce another SS tax payer within 12 months--somebody who will be earning good money 26 years from now, just as the "trust fund" runs out. For the next 30 years or so we should be in good shape.

The "make a baby to save the Ponzi scheme" program needs a motto, and maybe a mascot. I leave that for others.

If you can't make a baby, please import one.

I already did my share of importing. Trust me, it costs a lot more (on avg.) to raise one than we'll ever get back with SS/Medicare! (Have you looked at college - heck high school - tuition lately?)

Now, if it was just the "making" part... Never mind.

 

[Telly]

About SS:

"But payroll taxes are only one source of income for the program, and with the others -- including interest income on its $2.5 trillion trust fund, held in special issue U.S. Treasury securities -- the program is expected to continue to run a surplus until 2024."

If I ran a "Trust Fund" like that, I'm sure I'd end up in jail!

About Medicare... When I get to be Medicare age, I wonder if there will be any Dr. near me that will accept Medicare patients then.

 

[Rustic23]

Sam,
I know your post was in jest, but I thought I would relay a real life episode. I had a 60 year old women that worked for me. When her oldest son turned 18 she was going to loose her housing assistance money in CA. So she got pregnant. She openly admitted that welfare would pay for the child's care, and she would be good for another 18 years us assisted housing!

The system is broke!

 

[haha]

At least she spaced them out.

Ha

 

[Koolau]

How do you get pregnant at 60? Did she get gummint "assistance" with that too? I know I often feel like the gummint has, ahem, "taken advantage of me", but that's ridiculous.

 

[Rustic23]

I didn't ask, and she was not married.

 

[HFWR]

I didn't ask, and she was not married.

I think the question was more about a 60yo woman getting pregnant. Most of us know how to do the deed...

 

[fisherman]

I think the question was more about a 60yo woman getting pregnant. Most of us know how to do the deed...

I am a slow learner and not quite sure I know all the details. I wonder if DW would let me practice?

 

[donheff]

Sam,
I know your post was in jest, but I thought I would relay a real life episode. I had a 60 year old women that worked for me. When her oldest son turned 18 she was going to loose her housing assistance money in CA. So she got pregnant. She openly admitted that welfare would pay for the child's care, and she would be good for another 18 years us assisted housing!

The system is broke!

Are you throwing in an obviously false story like this to jerk our chains or did your employee actually tell you this and you actually believed it? I suppose you gave her a few moths maternity leave to help out?

 

[donheff]

Back to the original post, the article refers to new projections from the Medicare actuaries that show the rate of cost increases dropping dramatically because of provisions in the health care legislation. Krugman posts a nice graphic showing the change. If you believed the actuaries were correct on the magnitude of the problem before why question them on the magnitude of the fixes? Same thing with the SS trust fund. It is precisely as real as your TIPS account. It is Government spending elsewhere and revenue shortfalls overall that screw the pooch. Why pick on funded SS payments (and a modest long term shortfall) as a particular problem rather than citing unfunded war costs and tax cuts or other fed expenditures in general as the "problem" that needs fixing?

 

[HFWR]

I am a slow learner and not quite sure I know all the details. I wonder if DW would let me practice?

It's okay to poke fun at her, as long as she doesn't take it seriously...

 

[Rustic23]

DonHeff,
True story. She was actually proud of the fact and let everyone in the office know. This employee was legendary within the company. She had been fired at multiple times, but used various laws to get re-instated. She had been moved to multiple departments and ours was the last. It took five years to fire her for performance and a file that was almost two inches thick. She was also receiving checks from two chemical companies, settlements from class action law suites, but that is another story.

 

[donheff]

DonHeff,
True story. She was actually proud of the fact and let everyone in the office know. This employee was legendary within the company. She had been fired at multiple times, but used various laws to get re-instated. She had been moved to multiple departments and ours was the last. It took five years to fire her for performance and a file that was almost two inches thick. She was also receiving checks from two chemical companies, settlements from class action law suites, but that is another story.

I believe all of that and I believe that she claimed to be pregnant. I won't believe she was pregnant unless I see the amazed news articles announcing the birth.

 

[HFWR]

Pregnancy over age 50 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1997: Dawn Brooke of Guernsey gave birth to a son by caesarian section on August 20, 1997, at the age of 59. She became pregnant unexpectedly, initially mistaking the symptoms she experienced for cancer, and is the oldest mother currently known to have conceived naturally. It has been speculated that the hormone replacement therapy which Brooke had may have contributed to her ability to ovulate past menopause.

 

[Rustic23]

Well, the kid is about 10 now, and about a thousand miles away from me, so I can't get you a picture, I did however see him, and it was a him, at age about 6 weeks. I will concede that while everyone thought she was 60, and she looked it, I can not swear to her age. I can to her intent.