With the holiday season in full swing, people are becoming more and more charitable. Everywhere you look; there are Salvation Army volunteers outside stores ringing their bells so that people will donate to their cause, or people working at soup kitchens to feed the less fortunate. Helping others who are less fortunate than you is a great way to spend your spare time or spare pocket change during the holiday season, if that is what you would like to do with your time and money. Personally, I am not one to donate much of anything, unless I know exactly what the cause is that my money or time is going to.A few weeks ago, the Federal Government showed just how much they were in the holiday spirit, when the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 was signed into law by President Bush. This Act entitles millions of Seniors to receive, among other things, low cost prescription medications so that they don’t have to spend large amounts of money out of their own pockets. This all sounds great, but who has to pay for it? Chances are, if you pay taxes, then you will be footing the bill for these medications. As a taxpayer I would like to say to all those Seniors out there who benefit from this Act, you’re welcome.
This is just another way for the Government to re-distribute money to people who don’t deserve it. The Act falls right in line with Welfare, Social Security and all of the other “entitlement” programs that the government has set up to help struggling Americans by taking money away from people who don’t need these programs.
This is basically what they are doing:
Imagine you’re standing in line at the grocery store, behind someone buying their groceries for the week. Their total comes to say $150, but they can only pay for $75 of it, so they hand the cashier the $75, finish bagging their groceries and leave with all $150 worth of groceries. Next, it’s your turn to check out. You’re buying a comparable amount of groceries, say another $150, but when the total comes up; it says $155, not $150. You rightfully would complain to the cashier, saying that you are being overcharged by $5. They respond by telling you that you, and everyone else who can support themselves will have to pay $5 more for groceries, because the person ahead of you couldn’t afford all of their groceries.
If that scenario seemed ridiculous to you, just think that the government is doing exactly that in these entitlement programs. They first find a group of Americans who are struggling to make ends meet, the elderly for argument’s sake. They then tell these entitlement recipients that they can have a certain amount of money to help pay their medical bills, and they don’t have to repay any of it. Next they take taxpayer dollars and give it to these people for doing what most people would love to get paid for, which is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
What the government should be encouraging, which they are through the new Medicare Act, is an individualized health care savings plan. People should, in addition to their regular retirement funds set aside a percentage of each paycheck to add to their health care fund. It should be set up much like any other retirement account, where funds that are contributed gain interest over time, except that this account should allow the individual to have access to the funds, should they require them for immediate medical expenses that are not covered by their insurance.
I agree that seniors have medical problems that cost a lot of money and it’s a very unfortunate situation for them. But why should I or anyone else for that matter, pay for their “groceries” just because they didn’t plan well enough for themselves?
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