Letter: Bush is setting the stage for a health care showdown

Regarding “2009 budget attacks escalating Medicare costs”: The two obvious observations here are that President Bush is on his way out with the expectation that there will be a Democratic president to follow. Bush is clearly trying to put that next president in the position of having to take much more immediate action on health care. He is setting the stage for a showdown he can watch from his living room in Texas in 2009. Bush was not brave enough to do this for a budget year when he would be in office.

The second obvious observation is that he is trying to force Medicare to be more efficient but at a time when the baby boomers are moving into their Medicare years and need more care. Effectively, he is reducing medical access over the budget years by several times the amount he actually reduced it, given the number of people who will be entering the system. There are difficult, but effective, means by which to force Medicare administration into efficiencies. It is never easy to make bureaucracies change their ways. It takes hard work and time.

President Bush was not up to either, so he left the problem, several times expanded, to the next president.  

Don't worry, America, the Democratic president will be up to the task. It won't be easy. It will hurt.  But if we can put up with a little extra time and having our too large bottles taken away in airport security lines, we can make real sacrifices for our parents.  

Hollace Lyon
Alexandria, Va.


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