An Iconoclastic View on Medicare and Student Debt – Punishing the Young Again to Support the Old

An Iconoclastic View on Medicare and Student Debt – Punishing the Young Again to Support the Old

Dear xxx

As one of my favorite iconoclasts, I thought I’d run this by you.

I was chatting with a friend about finances, unintended consequences, etc. and we hit upon this:

A.            MEDICAID  and COLLEGE FUNDING and STUDENT DEBT

(1)          A current concern is slowing the growth of Medicaid expenses.

(2)          Medicaid expenses are already pressuring state finances.

(3)          In order to fund Medicaid, states have been cutting back on college funding.

(4)          With cutbacks in college funding, colleges have to raise tuition costs.

(5)          In order to go to college, many students take out loans.

… and  basically everyone admits we have a student loan crisis.

B.            OBAMACARE and the YOUNG and HEALTHY

Here again, young people are asked to buy insurance to support the old and sick.

C.            CHOICE or NO CHOICE

No one is saying directly to students that they have to forgo saving for a house, buying a car, etc. because they need to pay to support older people who never set aside their own funds for retirement and nursing homes (75% of Medicaid supposedly goes for this – please confirm); but, have young people been given a choice?

I would only posit that maybe this is just part of the law of unintended consequences.

As well of course, we could look to lots of different kinds of preclusive or overlooked biases.

Anyway, would love to see this more broadly discussed. When we did an exercise, we found the average student with approximately $25 – 50k in extra debt and $250 a month in lower income.