Medicare is a key issue of the Democratic/Republican warfare going into this November’s election.
What do our Medicare payroll tax deductions buy?
The taxes go to fund Medicare’s Part A, which is for hospital insurance (including nursing home care, home health care, and hospice). At 65, everyone receives this benefit. Monthly premiums are paid by seniors themselves after 65 for their own Medicare insurance for care providers (Part B) and drugs (Part D).
What is the Romney-Ryan proposal regarding Medicare?
Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan say they want to fix Medicare. They propose to repeal Obamacare and offer a “premium support system,” a voucher system where the government gives seniors a fixed amount and the choice to buy health insurance from either a private provider or from Medicare.
Will repealing Obama-care and adding private insurers help seniors financially?
No. “Vouchers are a way to transform Medicare, a social insurance program, into a privatized system, and giving seniors a lot of ‘skin in the game,’ ” says Columbia Journal Review’s Trudy Liebermann.
“Over time, Medicare experts believe, the voucher may not keep pace with medical inflation, shrinking in value. In analyzing Ryan’s plan last year, the Congressional Budget Office found that ‘most elderly people who would be entitled to premium support payments would pay more for their healthcare than they would pay under current the Medicare system.’ ”
Will this proposed change help Medicare?
No. “Over the longer term, the Ryan plan would end Medicare as we know it — and in Washington, ‘fiscal responsibility’ is often equated with willingness to slash Medicare and Social Security, even if the purported savings would be used to cut taxes on the rich rather than to reduce deficits,” writes New York Times’ Paul Krugman.
How would the proposed voucher system work?
The “government would give them a set amount of money in “premium-support” payments (defined contribution) every year to buy coverage from private insurers,” says Wendell Potter of the Center for Public Integrity.
“In practice, beneficiaries would never touch those premium-support payments. That money would go straight into the bank accounts of the insurance companies they chose to provide their coverage.” Further details have not been forthcoming by the candidates.
Are private insurance premiums less expensive than Medicare?
“No. All the evidence says that public systems like Medicare and Medicaid, which have less bureaucracy than private insurers (if you can’t believe this, you’ve never had to deal with an insurance company) and greater bargaining power, are better than the private sector at controlling costs,” Krugman says.
“I know this flies in the face of free-market dogma, but it’s just a fact. You can see this fact in the history of Medicare Advantage, which is run through private insurers and has consistently had higher costs than traditional Medicare.”
Did President Obama cut $716 billion from Medicare?
No. This is a false claim by the Romney-Ryan ticket. Obamacare does not reduce benefits to seniors. It instead shifts this money from Medicare providers (hospitals, care givers, insurance companies) over the next decade.
Is Medicare going bankrupt?
No. CNN once again did fact-checking and found that the part of Medicare with potential problems on the horizon is the Part A Hospital Trust Fund. Other parts of Medicare are “adequately financed” according to Medicare trustees. Repealing Obamacare would actually put Medicare back in harm’s way.
How do we keep Medicare fiscally safe?
— Reduce inefficient health care spending. A recent Institute of Medicine reports billions being wasted on “unnecessary or poorly delivered services or other needless costs.” Lack of coordination is a big problem.
— Raise taxes. “Yes, the president said, ‘some adjustments’ have to be made to Medicare and Medicaid — code words for saying that middle-class and poor Americans will have to take a hit in all sorts of ways to balance the budget — but it is unconscionable to do so without first asking more of the wealthiest Americans,” says a Chicago Sun-Times editorial.
— Reduce military spending. “By reinventing our military to defend the United States, rather than to project force abroad, and by putting veterans to work doing jobs that are needed here at home, we could rebuild our country and our economy, and rein in spending,” says Yes! Magazine’s co-editor Sarah van Gelder.
— Marylin Olds is an opinion columnist for the Kingston Community News. Comments are welcome at marylin.olds@gmail.com.
