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To reform Medicare, first expose its moral bankruptcy

At the Daily Caller, Rituparna Basu of the Ayn Rand Institute writes:

According to Medicare’s trustees, Medicare will go bankrupt in the next 12 years (some argue it could happen as early as 2016). The program is already running combined deficits of close to $290 billion, and its long-term unfunded liabilities top $30 trillion (some argue they could be more than $89 trillion). Cato’s Michael Tanner puts the lower estimate of Medicare’s unfunded liabilities in perspective: “[W]e could confiscate every penny belonging to every millionaire and billionaire in America and still cover less than a third of Medicare’s red ink, even using the lowest estimate for its unfunded liabilities.”

Despite these facts, we continue to treat Medicare as untouchable. …

Why, despite its impending fiscal collapse, is Medicare untouchable? …

Is it proper for the government to force people into such a scheme? Is it right to make the medical expenses of some the unchosen obligation of others? Is Medicare compatible with the founding principle of America — that each individual has a right to live for the sake of his own happiness and not have the fruits of his productivity confiscated for others?

These are the kinds of fundamental questions we must be willing to ask. It really should not be surprising that when we divorce benefits from costs — a person’s consumption from his production — as Medicare does, bankruptcy looms.

Read more: It’s time to unplug Medicare’s third rail | The Daily Caller.