BCT Editorial – 5/30/07

This page was last updated on June 9, 2007.

Disaster recipe; Editorial; Beaver County Times; May 30, 2007.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Americans still haven’t grasped the reality that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are going to be swamped when the baby boom generation starts to retire in four years.

“It turns out that a fourth crisis, equally staggering in terms of cost, is heading our way.

“Stuart H. Shapiro, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, reports the nation has ‘no means of paying for the long-term needs of the nation’s 77 million baby boomers.’ Writing in The Philadelphia Inquirer, he called it ‘our nation’s greatest unfunded mandate.’

“Shapiro cites a study that concluded that nearly 70 percent of those turning 65 this year will eventually require long-term care. Most Americans mistakenly believe their long-term care needs will be met by Medicare, Medicaid or their existing health insurance. They won’t.

“Neither the American people nor their elected leaders are preparing to deal with this crisis. But then again, why should it be any different than Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?

“Everybody expects somebody else to pick up the tab. It’s recipe for financial disaster.”

[RWC] “Everybody expects somebody else to pick up the tab.” I never cease to be amazed when I read things like this in op-ed pieces from liberal sources.

Why can’t liberals acknowledge these very programs train people to believe someone else will pay? Getting someone else to pay is the very foundation of these programs. Let’s also not forget welfare and the push for “employer-paid” healthcare insurance. When you keep telling people someone else will pay – employers, “the rich,” etc., why should you be surprised when people start to believe it and act accordingly?