Health Care and the Next Generation

I've been reading a bit of the debate about the new health care plans, and how it might affect the young adults of the nation (that's me!) If you read the comments on FOX (yikes!) the main argument is 'why should we pay for something we won't use?' The other argument is 'The old folks have been paying for Medicare their whole lives, and now that's being replaced! What will they do?'

Does anyone else see the funny? What, exactly, is the difference between these two programs, besides the fact that you can tap into it before you get old?

I pay thousands of dollars into Medicare and Social Security every year, and I don't make very much. Everyone pays about 15% of their paycheck to this program, no options. The youth are paying for it, and as of today, gain nothing from it until they reach the age of 65. That means that if you are earning $25,000 a year, you are paying out $4,000 in social costs every year. Which also means you are really only earning $21,000 in a year, minus what you might pay in regular taxes.

I'm not going to jump on the band wagon and say that I trust that anything the government comes up with will be awesome and fix all of our problems, but I sure hope it ends up better than what we have now. If I don't get some of my health problems taken care of, I might not even live much past 65 anyway, and all that Medicare / Social Security money I paid out will have been wasted.

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