It’s not just Social Security the debt ceiling negotiators in D.C. are ignoring. Also off the table is that other massive line item in the federal budget, Medicare. That program is currently projected to run out of money in 2031 – three years later than previous estimates (a good thing).
But the money still runs out…absent reforms that increase its financial stability.
What sort of reforms might achieve this essential goal? The Tax Foundation’s Alex Durante writes that there have been several ideas floated in the last decade and more to keep Medicare solvent, including tough medicine like raising Medicare Part B premiums or rationing care.
But there are others that would be less of a shock, while still helping the bottom line, including this relative oldie from 2011:
One of the more ambitious plans to reform Medicare is to transition to a “premium support” model. Such a system was proposed by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Paul Ryan (R-WI) and the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) in 2011. The Ryan-Wyden plan would have allowed traditional Medicare plans to compete with private insurance plans in a competitive bidding process, and then the government would have provided vouchers to seniors to purchase coverage. The value of the vouchers would have grown at a rate of GDP plus one percent, and the expectation was that allowing private insurers to compete would help lower costs. To keep costs down even further, the BPC plan would have required Medicare beneficiaries earning above 150 percent of the poverty level to pay higher premiums if spending exceeded the growth limit.
Bipartisan, far-reaching, competitive…no wonder it’s still on the shelf after all these years.
Regardless of what one thinks about various reform proposals, the inescapable point is that some sort of Medicare reform is unavoidable. The current system’s finances are simply too unstable to ensure that the needs of current and future participants will be met.
We wouldn’t know any of that from the spending/debt ceiling theater currently underway in D.C. Reforming the costliest entitlements in the budget goes unmentioned because of politics, fear and the overriding desire of pols to keep their jobs.
None of them want to reenact the 1989 spectacle that awaited then-Rep. Dan Rostenkowski at a local gas station. A group of seniors angry over a law that raised a tax to help cover catastrophic health insurance assailed the powerful committee chairman. The episode resulted in the quick repeal of the tax and the creation of a memory that lives in the blood and bones of politicians to this very day.
The nation’s fiscal health cannot remain in thrall to the ghosts of protests past. But for the time being, it appears that’s exactly what’s happening.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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CUT DC Medicare & SS bureaucracy alone X1000K+
It appears most politicians stand by and do nothing as the government they are part of, elected by us, squander taxpayer money on nonsense, give it away to all kind of groups, countries, illegals pouring over our border, on and on and on. Who do they punish, our country, citizens, veterans the very people they were elected to protect and put first, the very people they take the money from. We need a major change if we ever expect to turn his around! Taxpayer money should be spent only on all the programs put in place that benefit all taxpayers, not a dime for special interest groups, public radio/tv, arts etc. all those groups should get their support from donations provided by the people that want them to exist. Money given to other countries should be carefully monitored so as to not be wasted or filling the pockets of their politicians/leaders at our expense/demise. IMO