Joesph Antos' statement on premium support for Medicare before the House Committee on Ways and Means' Subcommittee on Health

Among many matters being discussed in the debate over the debt limit are proposals to reform health insurance policies used to supplement Medicare, such as so-called Medigap plans. Such reforms reportedly could save $53 billion over ten years.

While many interesting and valuable points come up in Goodman and Saving's post, several assertions raise some secondary questions about the true nature of the statistical comparisons.

Many on the political left decry the disappearance of defined-benefit pension plans from the private sector and strive mightily to maintain them for public-sector employees. The people who put defined-benefit plans and policies in place assumed there would always be someone able to pay for them.

The conventional ways of cataloguing and reporting health spending significantly understate the government share of health spending.

The majority of Americans will not be able to buy their way out of Obamacare and the new health care plan will not reform the way Medicare pays physicians.

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Only the wealthiest Americans will be able to buy their way out of ObamaCare, while the vast majority will remain locked inside a system of government-decreed medical benefits.