Response to "Life After 50" article: "Paved in Gray"

Mr. Silva:

Thank you for bringing to our attention the growing role that our seniors play in our national politics. Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, among many politicians, explained to college students that since senior citizens vote, their representatives pay more attention to their needs. I wish that activists for balancing the budget and ending the deficit spending would also line up and help out.

I have to correct you regarding Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan’s Pathway to Prosperity.

Your article claims that Ryan’s plan would “end Medicare as we know it.”

That is not true at all. Ryan’s plan will do nothing that will compromise the entitlement for those 55 and above. For the 54 and younger set, they will have the option of purchasing private medical insurance with a voucher, or staying in the Medicare program. Choice is a good thing, and we should not fault the Wisconsin Congressman for taking the lead on proposing real solutions to a growing problem.

I am all for protecting people who have pre-existing conditions. Yet the idea that all of these free check-ups offered under the Affordable Care Act is going to blow up in our faces as this country witnesses a growing number of physicians quit medical practice because of the increasing paper work, the cuts in Medicare, and the growing number of regulations. Let’s not forget the insurance firms and businesses which have decided not to carry health insurance for their clients or their employees, including The Olive Garden.

The Law of Unintended Consequences is already exposing the UN-affordable elements of the “Affordable” Care Act. Hospitals are closing across the country, and the IRS recently ruled in their reading of the law that employees who receive care will then automatically disqualify the rest of their families from the subsidy which was originally intended for them.

The next administration should enact the following agenda: Repeal ObamaCare, permit private insurers to purchase health insurance across state lines, get rid of sclerotic licensure laws which forbid doctors from practicing in different states, authorize tax credits for Health Savings Accounts, and this country would be well on its way to bringing down the costs of health care and health insurance.