[thomastjeffery]

The most obvious point: if they were equivalent programs, we would just include people under the poverty line with Medicare. Instead, we have a completely different program, managed by different people with different goals. Down to its very core, Medicaid is a political football.

[lotsofpulp]

Exactly, I guess my comment could have been much shorter.

I love how there is even an Additional Medicare Tax. The political lines in the US are very much old v young, but some of the young, especially politically active ones, vote with the old since they are among the wealthy young, and the rest do not participate enough, or do not have sufficient knowledge about how resources are being meted out and how they will be affected now and in the future.