One reason is, getting an appointment on Medicaid can take months. So people end up in emergency rooms. Hardly a good solution.
Europe has fallen behind America and the gap is growing
- Thread starter buster
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I stopped reading at that point. 2008 of course was in the middle of a big recession that hit the US especially. For the author to cite numbers from one bad year to try to demonstrate a trend is very shady.
4WD
$50 site donor 2025
Same with many-many babies …
This guy had no problem getting his appointment at the pain clinic for his painkiller prescription. Priorities. Also, almost none of the 70 ER visits resulted in any followup...most were "no problem found" or whatever the medical term for that is. Most of the time he appeared to by trying to get more pain meds from the ER, and he knew exactly which ERs would give him what he wanted.
If you're wondering how I know this, I allowed myself to get wrapped up in this individual's problems, a mistake I won't make again.
That' pure B.S. I get so sick and tired of hearing this. S.S. and Medicare ARE NOT entitlement programs. They are poorly run government health insurance and retirement programs that YOU PAY into in order to get.
Don't work, or don't pay anything into S.S. your entire working life. Then come back when you're 65 and tell me how you're going to retire on it. Same with Medicare.
I pay for Medicare every month. (This in addition to what I paid into it my entire working life, through payroll deductions, (FICA), out of every single paycheck I ever earned). The government didn't give me squat. And I still have to carry additional policies that I pay for out of pocket, that cover what Medicare limits, like extensive cancer treatment.
None of this is "free" or "social". Same with unemployment insurance, and many other benefits that are paid for by everyone except the government. All the government is doing is running these programs straight into the ground with pure financial incompetence.
If they had kept their filthy hands off S.S. from the get go, it would be so financially fat today, they would be LOWERING the retirement age, not RAISING it. The government train wrecks everything they touch financially. And have done so for decades.
"Generation Z", or whatever the hell they call themselves, had better start learning how to save. Because the way the government is going, you people will be working until you drop.
Call it what you want, but those are Social programs. I agree 100% the Social Security coffers have been treated like their piggy bank; there is no denying that. Poorly run? Hard to argue with that.
I also 100% agree with saving; people seem to think money grows on trees. So many are realizing a rude awakening. Scary stuff.
Depends on who you are - I looked into both a while back.
Social security is bottom end loaded - meaning the less you pay into it, the more you get back out as a percentage paid it. ie even though its capped, the top earners subsidize everyone else - even though its the ones at the bottom always crying about how SS doesn't pay them enough.
Everyone gets medicare, however again, the top earners pay the most, and subsidize everyone at the bottom.
So it depends on who you are. If you capped out on SS and Medicare most of your working life, then you paid too much and got shafted.
If you worked when you felt like it and at mediocre jobs, it is most certainly an entitlement.
meanwhile in EU... don't give a fu..
Call what what you want but people who did not contribute to Social Security do not collect Social Security and your payouts are formulated by what you put into it. People who put the most get the most back from the fund, people who put the least get the least back and a small percentage never get anything.
Social Security is not treated like a Piggy Bank. The only money to leave the trust fund are to the people who put the money in. It's hands off to congress and why it has over a trillion in surplus funds vs http://usdebtclock.org and the supplied link shows it as the only program in the black.
It's actually the only program that works as evidenced by the link above. The reason for this is the voters and their representatives cant change it on a whim.
Here is more interesting stuff.
https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v71n2/v71n2p17.html
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They get SSI instead (Supplemental Security Income). That pays about $750 a month, currently.
Supplemental Security Income (like Welfare and Food stamps) comes from the General Fund not the Social Security Trust Fund
https://www.ssa.gov/ssi/text-over-ussi.htm
"SSI is financed by general funds of the U.S. Treasury--personal income taxes, corporate and other taxes. Social Security taxes collected under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) or the Self-Employment Contributions Act (SECA) do not fund the SSI program."
Yes, it's pretty much a welfare program that never expires. They call "SSI" payments "crazy checks" in southwest Virginia, because it's a common thing around there, apparently, to get on the SSI program for mental issues (prior to age 65 you must have a disability to collect SSI).
''You pay into in order to get'' and 96% of US citizens will get those benefits, which is functionally not far off from single payer systems which cover everyone (for healthcare) but those systems spend multiple times less per capita and have overall similar or better health outcomes than the US. Further, considering in the US you don't get what you put in, as its all mixed together and redistributed back in disproportional amounts, it is essentially socialized. Put in a lot, get back less, put in a little (which is truly not much, and is based on some absurd points system), get back more. That is nearly the definition of ''socialized'', and as far as how retirement is handled in some EU countries, it's more akin to an IRA account rather a ''socialized pool'' of taxed income, and is not nearly as dependant on the younger demographics curve being able to support it. The only practical difference is that in the EU everyone gets covered for healthcare in retirement and in the US 4% don't. Of that 4%, only 1/3 are ''infrequent workers'', the rest are largely late arrival immigrants, whome, I assume you are ok with not being able to afford healthcare, which is just cruel. Believe me, I see pros and cons to both systems, but don't go thinking any single one is greatly better than the other. They all kinda suck in their own way.
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The only program that works (SS) won't be able to make payments in full starting in 2037. https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v70n3/v70n3p111.html
Goes on to say ''adjustments to taxes or benefits that offset the effects of the lower birth rate may restore solvency''. Further the SS budget is +$1.3 trillion, but has $22.7 trillion in liabilities. SS+Medicare has $192 trillion in unfunded liabilities according to your source. I am not trying to make any political point, just thought it might be valuable info for well informed citizens. It is a reflection on the idea that no system is perfect and all have major issues ahead.
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I fully expect that there will be no SS when I retire.
Unless the FedGov decides to nationalize 401k accounts to save it. You know they're thinking about it.
Na…sorry, no disrespect but this is all media sensationalism.
You have to put this in context, that nothing is right in the entire world according to media stories.
If there’s a news story that they could fabricate to drum up drum ends sell advertising. You can bet one of the biggest ones will always be Social Security because it’s a story that catches attention from a mindless voting public.
Social Security will never run out of money for one simple reason one just has to reformulate the formula like they have done throughout history. Speaking of history, never as long as mankind walks on this earth according to the media, you will never hear them say what great shape Social Security is in. It’s too popular of a subject and a perfect news story whenever they need to fabricate news and keep the advertising revenue coming in.
It’s the most successful federal program ever created in Washington DC, one just has to look at every other single federal program that’s in the red and people are concerned because Social Security is only one to $2 trillion in the black. If you really think about it, it’s laughable.
One stroke of the pen, increasing the income levels that high earners keep contributing and it’s fixed as it always has been, and always will be.
Social Security is merely a trust fund. What comes in will go out, it’s working perfect. There is no reason to have more than a couple trillion dollars in reserves and as those reserves get lower, adjust income levels and increase retirement age, as we were all living longer than ever.
Think about it isn’t it funny how politicians grandstand in the media reports on the social security system. It’s the one system that they’re not allowed to change and the only system in the federal government that I have actually operates in the black thing about that.
Then go and look at this website and look what they are allowed to control http://usdebtclock.org
And compare it to the one thing in the black that they’re not really directly in charge of a that they’re not really directly in charge of and can’t change on a whim then tell me where the danger lies.
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Quoted for truth.
All of the world's economies are mixed systems. The much derided term "socialist" applies to our economy just as it does to all the rest.
