The real death tax

Commentary By Ron Beasley

This is a must read from James Fallows; Undoing Medicare: The Real 'Death Tax'

Go read the entire thing but here is a snip:

Controlling the open-endedness of medical spending is of course a major public and private challenge. To repeat: "bending the curve" of health-care expenses is absolutely necessary. But until recently it had been taken as settled wisdom, on both policy and political grounds, that insuring people against the risk of complete financial ruin from late-in-life medical expenses left everyone better off. Old people, their families, doctors and the medical system too. Our health care system is out-of-control and unsustainable in countless ways. But very rarely has anyone argued that removing universal coverage for older people would make things better rather than worse.

That's the understanding being challenged by Rep. Paul Ryan's "serious" budget plan.