Medicare Crisis

Because America is obsessed with increasing life expectancy among its already ridiculously old people, more and more money is needed each year for Medicare.

To put it bluntly, the elderly covered by Medicare refuse to kick the bucket because they have a neverending supply of money at their fingertips to spend on medical procedures. Modern medicine insists on telling them that there are more options, more operations and more medications that will squeeze a few more months out of them.

President Bush semi-recently authorized the coverage of prescription medications in Medicare, meaning more government funding for any grandma or grandpa who needs anything from Prozac to Zyrtek.

The current retirement age is sixty-five. With the baby boomers approaching this milestone in the near future, the government is going to be expected to shell out much more cash; those approaching seniority have been promised full medical coverage for the rest of their lives.

It may sound inhumane to propose that we stop covering the elderly's chemotherapy medication or life-saving CT scans - and it's true, many elderly people can't afford it without federal assistance. However, at some point, you have to stop dishing money that you don't have simply because you want to help.

This is why it would be advisable to make cuts from Medicare and not from other developing areas (such as education, and not to mention growing debt) that the money should be dedicated to. This is not to say that the elderly do not deserve to be covered - major life-saving operations, chemotherapy, unavoidable accidents - these should all be covered by taxes. However, it is the unnecessary medications and excessive hospitalizations that are truly a thorn in the side of all taxpayers.