We’ll save Medicare by destroying it?

Sally Williams, Henderson

Monday, May 30, 2011 | 2:03 a.m.

Let me get this straight: Medicare is going broke, so to fix it, we need to get rid of it. We’ll let private insurance companies take charge of health care. We’ll just ignore the fact that Medicare and Medicaid are going broke because the cost of health care in America is much more than in other industrialized nations.

Oh, but don’t worry seniors, if you’re older than 55, you’re OK — just your children and grandchildren will be affected. I’m sure they won’t even notice. They’ll be too busy paying for currently unpaid-for wars in oil-rich nations. They’ll be too busy trying to save for retirement because pensions are a thing of the past and all of their retirement is invested in the volatile stock market. They’ll be too busy rebuilding collapsed bridges, broken levies, water mains, gas lines and power grids.

We might even have enough money left over to fix these things in our country instead of in the countries we’ve needlessly invaded. No, I don’t think those 55 and younger will even notice. So let’s save Medicare by getting rid of it.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the political aisle, Democrats were punished in 2010 because they saw that health care was too costly and that, at the current rate of inflation, Medicare and Medicaid will break the government. Instead of getting rid of Medicare and Medicaid — essentially ensuring that more of the poor and elderly will not be able to get or afford health care — they decided to work on making health care affordable for all. In the end they accomplished what both sides had been trying to do for years and created the Affordable Care Act.

It may not be perfect, it will probably need some adjusting, but it was the right thing to do.