"You'll Be Insured If You Get Hit By a Bus (During July and In a Snowstorm)."

Republicans want to change Medicare into a system of block grants and insurance subsidies. They sa it will save the government money.

It will do that by pushing the costs onto states and individuals.

Right now, there are 48 million people on Medicare, both seniors and children. If you were to go out and buy a decent medical insurance plan, you will find that full-coverage plans cost $1,000 to $1,500. That's not for a "cadillac" plan, that's for a traditional plan.

Using the lower figure, that's 48 billion dollars a month or 576 billion a year. Of that, the health insurance companies take a good cut of their premiums as profits, something Medicare does not do. The prospects of profits from private insurance for 48 million people must have the health insurance companies slavering like wolves eyeing an unprotected flock of fat sheep.

What will probably happen, though, is that the party of Hoover's idea of insurance subsidies will be more along the lines of very high deductible "hit by a bus" type of insurance. Which will push the cost of insurance back onto the individuals. So the insurance companies will rake in huge profits and pay out very little.

The Hooverites seek to go back to the days when poor care and early death awaited those who were elderly and not wealthy.

Fucking over the disadvantaged, the elderly and using the government to enrich corporations. That's pretty much the entire philosophy of the GOP in one sentence.