Milk Jug Protests

Remember the local protests against President Obama's health care reform proposal at the Oriental post office last year? The protesters, mostly Republicans, said they didn't want any government interference in health care, though most of them were users of Medicare, VA and other US Government health care programs. Some seemed to fear that health care reform would take these away.

We now know that it is the Republicans who want to replace Medicare with a voucher system, thus turning it into something entirely different from the present system. But they get upset if anyone points out that Congressman Ryan's plan is a voucher system (which it is) and will end Medicare as it now exists (which it will).

Paul Krugman points out quite clearly in his blog why Medicare is sustainable in its present form, but is susceptible to improvement. If you are interested in his explanations, look here. For even more information, once on his blog, keep clicking on the "previous post" button. Eventually, you will come to an explanation of liquidity preference and an informative graph.

Personally, I think a better health reform would have been to adopt a system like VA. For various reasons, in any event, doctors are increasingly withdrawing from their own private practices and going on salary. This brings many benefits to them as well as to their patients. I, for one, would be more comfortable knowing that the physician isn't recommending a procedure because it improves his own personal income.