Politics

Fogies Forbid Anyone to Think About Changing Medicare, Not Even for the Young'uns

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It really doesn't matter how many times Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) or supporters of his Medicare reform plan point out that people who are already old will be getting their big juicy benefits until they day the last Boomer dies in an expensive ICU hospital bed with an IV dripping liquid gold into her veins. The fogies—defined as folks who are already retired, or less than 10 years from retirement—remain committed to fighting the Ryan plan to the death. 

Today from Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

By a 51%-to-25% margin, adults ages 65 and older oppose changing Medicare into a program that would give future participants a credit toward purchasing private health insurance. Including all adults ages 50 and older, opposition remains just as strong (51% to 29%). And this opposition is intense: 42% of adults ages 50 and older strongly oppose this kind of change to Medicare, while only 19% strongly favor it. Adults younger than age 30 are the most likely to support changes to Medicare (46% favor).

Or, to put it graphically:

Note that it's not really a partisan divide. It's old-versus-young. Was Chris Buckley right about the coming Boomsday?