It's great to use a couple of anecdotal examples to segue into your real point which is; how dare those old people look out for their own interests. Don't they know it's over for them. For the greater good they need to go quietly into that long night.
So Froma, to afford HR3200 the administration really is not going to cut medicare by $500 BILLION? Even though they say that cut is is how we can afford health care for illegals and others that don't buy insurance.
We all know those illegals and other deadbeats are going to be paying a lot into medicare in the future to take care of all those old people.
How dare those old people look out for their own interests! That makes them greedy and it's not attractive.
Those old people have never paid these taxes or the states taxes that fund these programs themselves.
Moreover, when you retire, you will never go on these programs yourself, will you?
What an hypocritical ass you are.

I am afraid that you have missed the point. Many seniors would like to be left alone. Many of us worked all our lives and some of us are still working. I played by the rules and worked two jobs and still work at 73. I work 60 hours a week and would like to continue to pay for my own insurance, contribute more to Social Security than I receive, contribute to Medicare and pay my own expenses.

What I and others resent is being told that we will lose the option to take care of ourselves even though we scrimped and saved so that we could do so without the interference of government. My total cost of medical insurance plus my contribution to Medicare is quite a bit more than I receive in benefits. And, I have had cancer twice, I have arthritis and other ailments that must be treated.

If you want to reduce the cost of care for everyone, stop subsidizing the lawyers through unlimited malpractice awards, start charging everyone a copay for every treatment. The copay, even if it were a dollar for low income people, would reduce unnecessary visits to the doctor and make the patient a participant in his/her care rather than a fool who accepts every treatment because it is "free."

Calling me greedy is an insult from an ignorant ideologue who is trying to force her agenda on everyone else.

Wouldn't it be convenient for you, Ms. Harrop, to put any senior who disagrees with government provided universal health care in the ungrateful and ignorant box. Yes, this is an emotional issue for many on both sides, and ungrateful/ignorant seniors are not worse (or better) than entitlement minded/ignorant socialists. It is unproductive to any real progress, but it sure works well for politics. Both parties do it, and I hate it no matter which one does.

Much of the reaction we are seeing by seniors (and many others) is based on fear. I know many who are rushing the government run healthcare legislation would claim the fear is unfounded, but I do not think so. These seniors your belittle in your article are expressing a feeling of helplessness. The federal government already controls much of their healthcare. For whatever reason they decided to depend on the government to provide their healthcare insurance in old age, not a wise choice if you ask me, they have done it. Now, after years of adapting to jumping through all the government hoops, Democrats are saying "We are changing the hoops to slides, trust us, you will love the ride." When they ask questions about how the slides will work, where they go, how fast, will there be lines, they get the same basic answer, "Trust us, you will love it." Well, seniors are not known for their enthusiasm for change, and forgive us if we do not trust the government with a blank check.

Greedy Geezers, undoubtedly some are (most likely they are the ones writing the bill), but there are many legitimate questions and concerns that are being ignored, talked over and mischaracterized. These seniors who you so disapprove of are escalating their objections in an attempt to just be heard. It is folks like you, Ms. Harrop, calling them names in an attempt to discredit them and shut them up, that are the bigger problem.

I think it is testimony to your lack of significance Ms. Harrop, that you received only four comments after your article, and two of them were mine.

Froma,
Thanks for calling attention to the unattractive entitlement mentality of some of our Seniors. It is plainly comical to watch people over 65 show up at these town hall meetings and accuse their representatives of moving the counry toward socialism, when they, the 65+ crowd, have been the direct beneficiaries of one of the largest and most generous social welfare programs ever created. I believe that Medicare copays ought to be increased as a way to encourage better decision making by those who over use the program. It is sad that the same person who demands free and world-class medical treatment for every minor ache and pain would deny treatment to a sick child of an uninsured parent who cannot afford to pay the bill.
Our health care system is broken and it needs to be fixed. We need tort reform to minimize all the additional expensive tests doctors feel compelled to perscribe. We need a public plan option for those who are excluded or dissatisfied with the private plan options. Most of all, we need to have a civil debate that brings forward the best ideas from both parties.
Thanks again for calling out those who would disrupt what needs to be our most thoughtful and civil public policy discussion ever.
RF Dobry
Longboat Key, FL

Do you not know what FICA is; and how much us geezers have paid into it with 1.45% of each $1.00 going into Medicare? Social Security gets 6.2%. It is not welfare; we have and still are paying into the pot. Don't dump on us!!

I read your column in the Newark, NJ Star Ledger. I agree. I live in the small town of Kenilworth, NJ. I grew up here, my kids grew up here and my grandkids live here. When the town wants to pass the budget for the school, the seniors knock it down. I go out and actively try to get people to vote yes. I have known most of these people my whole life. Most of them live in a house that was been paid off, unless they re-mortgaged them to build them into a McMansion. A lot of them meet at the supermarket parking lot to take a bus to Atlantic City every day to gamble. They belong to a Senior Citizens Club that I refuse to join even though I'm 72 years old. They do nothing all day but sit around and complain about their ailments. They should be out volunteering their time somewhere. I don't have time to sit around and complain because I'm at the gym, taking my grandkids to their sporting events and dancing lessons, helping them with their school work, singing with a Sweet Adelines chorus and crocheting blankets that I give away to needy children and Aids babies through the Linus organization. They are Greedy Geezers and I'm glad I'm not one of them. In any case if there wasn't enough swine flu vaccine for me and a young person or baby, I'd gladly give my dose up for them. I've already lived my life and because I'm a survivor of the WTC disaster I feel I've lived 8 years past my time. I'm grateful for every minute of my life and I will never understand these people that used to be my friends but no longer are!

Great Article!

What government ran system has been ran efficiently and under budget?
none.
Why do you expect our Gov't to magically change the tide now?
see VA hospital and Indian Reservation healthcare- both terrible.

Just because Medicare was a bad idea, doesn't mean we need to go out and create a worse situation.

These "Geezers" have been promised to be taken care of by Medicare/Medicaid and paid into the system their whole careers. If they would have been allowed to KEEP their money from their own production, they would have NO PROBLEM paying for THEIR OWN insurance now.

Read Peter Schiff.
for the record, I'm 32 years old and understand how bad Obama's healthcare program will shipwreck the US economy.

Ross Kranz
Bend, OR

"Everyone wants to live at the expense of the State. They forget that the State lives at the expense of everyone "
-Frédéric Bastiat

From one "geezer" to all the others out there: I am 73, still working part time and volunteer where ever I can. Without the "civilized" program of Medicare I would be dead - no kidding. I am guessing in the course of 40 some years I may have put $40,000 into the Medicare pot (incl. my employers' share). That amount would not have gone very far and other insurance is totally out of the question: I, like most seniors, am uninsurable. The majority of us have problems: Arthritis, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, genetic defects - you name it. No private insurance would touch most of us with a 10' pole. One month on dialysis costs about $16,000 - multiply by 18 and then top off with a transplant. I am lucky to have a real gold plated insurance, my very expensive drugs are covered by Tricare with a small co-pay. So I have actually a single payer plan. I chose my own doctors, I try to minimize my use of medical facilities. I have no problem being at the end of the line for H1N1 vaccination - experience has shown that many of us have developed some kind of immunity over our life times. Besides we are not forced to intermingle with crowds like the regular working population. If we have a serious outbreak we can stay home and when we go shopping, use a mask! So stop being so bloody selfish and think of those who have no or very insufficient coverage. Think of the boy who was left to die because of an abscessed tooth, or the girl who died for lack of an appendectomy, or the 17 year old young lady whose doctors where ready to give her a liver transplant, but the "Blues" refused to pay and let her die. How about the woman who was left to die on the floor of an emergency room!!!. Are you trying to say that if you were on the Titanic it should be: Seniors first? I thought the "me" generation came after us.
And no, investing our Medicare funds would 1) never have happened 2) remember what happened to our 401(k)s and IRAs! As a CPA I know how people DO NOT save.

I am one of those greedy geezers you referred to. One thing you forget is that, before you and possibly your parents were born, I was paying social security. The last 25 years of my career, I paid the maximum amount. If the politicians hadn't bought their re-elections by giving our money away to all the people who didn't pay a dime into the system, there would probably be a surplus. Oh, by the way, I think the bleeding heart liberals had something to do with the redistribution of the money.

I am one of those greedy geezers you referred to. One thing you forget is that, before you and possibly your parents were born, I was paying social security. The last 25 years of my career, I paid the maximum amount. If the politicians hadn't bought their re-elections by giving our money away to all the people who didn't pay a dime into the system, there would probably be a surplus. Oh, by the way, I think the bleeding heart liberals had something to do with the redistribution of the money.

Ms. Harrop- Lets talk about attractiveness. In no way is it attractive to refer to a generation of people as "geezers." In no way is it attractive to dismiss an entire generation's interest in their healthcare system as irate and ungrateful behavior. It no way is the smugness you convey throughout this article attractive.

As a twenty-five year old American, it scares me to see where this country is heading.

I don't mind being called a "geezer" but I object to "greedy"
When I turned 65 and found myself enrolled in Medicare, got a supplement insurance, I thought I had died and gone to heaven with the money savings from my previous health insurance.
Now, my extra money is usually spent on my grandchildren for their medical issues that are not covered nor affordable for my son.
Many of us "geezers" are assisting family, contributing to charity, volunteering our time, and cutting corners and that is not being greedy.
Many of us have set priorties for the money that we do have and have never been extravagant in our lifestyles.
I would be willing to bet that many of the "greedy geezers" were greedy youngsters, adults, so forth.
They, in their pre-geezer ages were selfish and are still selfish.
I can understand "seniors" being concerned about health care as we are at the age that we do think about dying and for those of us who have worked, never taken any state or private assistance, there is always the thought that we are one serious illness away from the streets.
Regarding the swine flu pandemic, perhaps some "geezers" are recalling the loss of family during the "great flu epidemic. I never met my fathers parents or his siblings as all died in that epidemic leaving him an orphan at age 9.
All of us have our internal fears and concerns. Mine include the kind of world we are leaving for our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and the children of the world.
We are not doing very well in that area and I think that "greed" plays a very large part in the damages.
Unfortunately, most of us don't pay attention to what is going on until it effects us personally.
I have always felt the money is there but the greed siphons it off enriching the lives of the few and for the most part, not "geezers".

Why not greedy government or greedy attorneys, greedy opportunists or greedy yuppies, greedy industrialists or greedy journalists? Greed is a vice that spans age, race, religion, sex, and national origin. The fact that seniors for the most part spent a lifetime contributing to a fund they were told was being accumulated to provide for their retirement seems to present an incomprehensible concept to Ms. Harrop. Now, "greedy" seniors are to Ms. Harrop a problem.
Senior Americans are for the most part patriotic. Their greatest fault may be that they trusted others. Seniors aren't the problem. Socialism isn't the solution. A national commitment to honesty might be a good starting place to fix that which is broken. Prayer would help. Personal charity would heal a multitude of sins. Ridiculous welfare programs that reward single mothers for multiple births, penalize marriage, pervert justice and replace God with government in education and public administration will ultimately lead to absolute tyranny.

I am one of the greedy geezers you wrote about. Regarding medicare part B: if a person is eligible, we have found NO private insurer who will insure you UNLESS you sign up for part B. My husband is self-employed and is required to pay into medicare with NO UPPER limit on 'contributions'. We are now eligible for medicare, so we now have the privilege(?) of both paying INTO and FOR medicare. The first year we were eligible was also the first year for means testing (i.e., make more pay more) to determine our part B premium. Our premiums are higher than we have ever experienced--even with children at home. We 'greedy geezers' are just trying to receive what we were told we would before they changed the rules in mid-stream.
If Ms. Harrup knows a company who will insure us without part B, please share it/ print the truth/or a retraction.

Of course there are greedy seniors. There are also greedy middle-aged people and greedy young people. Pitting the generations against one another is a divide and conquer strategy. However, your characterization of the majority of those over 65 wouldn't fly at all if it were your characterization of a racial or ethnic group. Oh yes, you know some who are wonderful, but most are leeches who are just taking and no longer contributing to society. I just have to say the word "geezer" is such an epithet, I can truly understand why so many seniors are scared to death of what you, the majority of voters who are under 65, will do to them when the government becomes the only game in town. The bigger the government, the more tyrannical, and the more there is to fear from the strong. I have to say that it is those over 65 who paid for your education, paid for medicare their whole working lives since the 60s, and are still paying taxes today on their property and income, as well as paying medicare premiums and supplements. They are also frequently caring for their disabled parents or spouses, and filling in with the care of their grandchildren. We're the same age Froma, and whatever we do to our parents is what is going to be done to us. A sobering thought.

I love this article! Why is it so hard for people to look at the " greedy senior" as a real problem in our society and address it accordingly. The average lifespan for men and women now in the US is 70 to 80. so you work for a quarter of that time and all of the sudden the younger generations is supposed to support you? Vacations, expensive medications and operations, supporting your lazy children. Really? It sickens me to think that I pay a large portion of my hard earned money so people can pop pills and indulge themselves without contributing anything to society. And to top it all off, by the time I retire all that money I put in will be gone! Sure some senoirs volunteer but ALOT do not due to health issues, which again costs me money. Seniors you have lived your lives, pass it on to the next generation and stop sucking the life out of the future.