There Is Still No Such Thing As Socialsecuritymedicareandmedicaid – NYTimes.com.

Krugman reiterates to need to keep Social Security budget discussions separate from Medicare, Medicaid and the other ‘entitlements’. They are  very different flavors of programs.

What I see is the biggest problem with the healthcare programs is that we aren’t funding them with enough payroll tax. Why don’t we just bump up the Medicare payroll tax up to 10%-15% and  make all Americans part of Medicare? from pre-birth to post-death?

Alternatively, we can just eliminate all government health-care programs – with a corresponding cut in the DoD budget. That should get our deficit down to 0 and maybe even start paying off the debt.   Then we will have millions of elderly dying in the streets much sooner that expected and this will save Social Security as well.