The right-wing policy agenda written for a new Donald Trump presidency would “greatly accelerate” efforts to privatize Medicare
Last year, for the first time ever, a majority of Americans eligible for Medicare were on privatized Medicare Advantage plans. If Republicans win the presidential race this year, the push to fully privatize Medicare, the government health insurance program for seniors and people with disabilities, will only intensify.
Conservative operatives have already sketched out what the GOP’s policy agenda would look like in the early days of a new Donald Trump presidency. As Rolling Stone has detailed, the proposed Project 2025 agenda is radically right-wing. One item buried in the 887-page blueprint has attracted little attention thus far, but would have a monumental impact on the health of America’s seniors and the future of one of America’s most popular social programs: a call to “make Medicare Advantage the default enrollment option” for people who are newly eligible for Medicare.
Such a policy would hasten the end of the traditional Medicare program, as well as its foundational premise: that seniors can go to any doctor or provider they choose. The change would be a boon for private health insurers — which generate massive profits and growing portions of their revenues from Medicare Advantage plans — and further consolidate corporate control over the United States health care system.
Yay. More healthcare I can’t afford.
A good read about the Democrats and why they losed to the profit of the extrem right is Leftism Reinvented: Western Parties from Socialism to Neoliberalism by Stephanie L. Mudge.
The sad thing here is that the Democrats will let them. Because they still think they get bonus points for playing the game by the rules only they follow.
Right now, the GOP nominee-presumptive is a piece of trash rapist, an Insurrectionist asshole who got hundreds of thousands of Americans dead. Man who is facing over 90 felony indictments, many of which are related to keeping (and let’s be honest, selling,) extremely sensitive materials.
Yet this asshole still walks free because to put him where he belongs would be political.
In case you’re wondering, this is why we’re fucked.
I love how you open with ‘this horrible thing being planned and pushed into existence by the republican party is AHCTUALLY the Democrats fault for allowing it’
If it’s so easy why don’t you stop the republicunts?
So the plan is to allow it because fighting against it is hard?
Democrats are really scraping the bottom of the barrel with this “we’re less terrible than them” attitude.
Do better.
Do better
I mean I have thought about it but honestly my sex life with my wife is totally dead and passionless and the only thing that gets me going anymore is being condescending towards progressives who have the nerve to try to change the world for better.
I don’t mean to be such a wet blanket, but you have to understand I don’t have anything else. Plus if I admitted progressives were right that would put my entire world view into question and honestly I am too old to be an evolving person with views that change and grow. Why do I, ME, have to KEEP changing my views, can’t the world just settle on a status quo and just keep it that way? It stresses me out and I don’t think minorities are thinking about that stress when they push for progressive societal change that benefits all.
In the same way that you would find it hard to jump into a cold lake, a world where other people are treated as equal to white men (me) is like jumping into a cold lake. You can judge me for endorsing structural violence and racism but the water is just so cold and no one cares about my feelings. I’m not used to having feelings, I am a man stranded in a terrifying and strange landscape and I need desperate people fighting for their lives and their loved one’s lives to just slowwww down and be more patient while I tip toe in.
I am not racist but
I didn’t say that.
I said the democrats won’t stop them.
I love how you totally don’t actually argue against any of that.
I can be angry that some one is an insurrectionist asshole, I can also be angry that the government hasnt locked said insurrectionist asshole up.
I can be angry that the assholes are trying to fuck over Americans. I can also be angry that the dems aren’t doing enough to stop it. I’m not saying it’s easy, I’m saying it’s necessary.
Oh, and i can’t stop them. Not alone. I’m one person, and certainly not a billionaire; and in any case the powers that are would never let me near federal office.
So the boomers who have been holding back progress on healthcare will soon be stuck in the same boat as everyone else? They will no longer be able to say “got mine” before “fuck you”?
Maybe we’ll get something that works for everyone out of the backlash, instead of something that only helps boomers.
Does not change anything for people currently on Medicare or people who don’t just take the default option when given a choice.
Has privatizing ever worked out in the favor of the general public?
Also, I still feel like republicans are an existential threat. We should treat them as such, and not like “oh well it’s just a difference of opinion and if they vote to kill me I guess that’s fine.”
Has privatizing ever worked out in the favor of the general public?
Depends on your definition. To a very large extent so much of the government is. Your city government isn’t developing their own OS or fabricating their own metal parts.
Less pedantically I think you mean “has there been a role that was traditionally done by civil servants that was handed over to private sector and things got better as a whole?”. It is a good question the only thing I can think of is some local government maintenance stuff is done that way. My city for example and our neighbor has the same night contractor for emergency repairs. I have worked with them a few times and they do alright, most of them are semi-retired.
Healthcare? Probably not. Privitization got us to it current CPU and GPUs though. Price gouging aside, they are quite the spectacle of tech.
So something I’ve been wondering about lately, on one hand capitalism coincides with most modern advancements, but is that a case of cause or just a case of happening to be around at the same time? Especially when capitalism is being propped up by a lot of what is essentially targeted socialism these days.
Marx once thought that capitalism was needed for industrialization before transitioning to the next stage of human development (socialism), but I think he changed his opinion later.
I personally think there would be much more innovation in a more socialist society with UBI or UBS (universal basic services) because people should generally have more time to get educated and work on risky ideas instead of working on assembly lines for 60+ hours/week just to take care of their families.
You are only wondering that because you don’t spend all day dealing with government contracts. It is night and day how slow government can be to adapt. I will name my next ulcer “government”. Work so fucking hard on some of them just trying to inch them forward I want to cry. And no it is not just the US. It is freaken everywhere.
I personally think the free market works best and is best when it is has strict boundaries to play in.
When I came to my employer we made effectively every penny from government contracts. I was one of the people brought on so we could expand into private sector. That was right when the virus happened. In 3 years our private sector stuff hardly even resembles the government stuff internally, same basic functionality. One is advancing and the other is stuck in the early 90s.
