Last week's deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" settled very little.
For those in the health care market, I will suggest the big takeaway is that we should expect very little will be settled in the coming months and we will continue to face a great deal of uncertainty for years to come.
Showing posts with label Deficits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Deficits. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Monday, November 21, 2011
The Super Committee Failure—What’s Next?
The stock market today was shocked, simply shocked, that the Super Committee didn’t come up with a debt deal.
I don’t know why. Republicans can’t vote for more taxes unless they're willing to get “primaried” from the right and risk losing their seat. Ditto for Democrats who would face the same punishment from their base if they voted to change the sacred defined benefit entitlements without at least getting tax concessions from the Republicans.
Obviously, neither side has a lot of statesmen in their ranks who would actually be willing to compromise.
In this hyper-partisan environment, where both parties are effectively in the control of their far left and far right bases, it is simply not possible for any meaningful bipartisan compromise.
Some time ago on this blog, I said that we wouldn’t get any meaningful effort to deal with the federal debt and entitlement challenge until there was a bond crisis—when investors would no longer be willing to lend to the U.S. government at reasonable rates without our first getting our unsustainable debt under control. Right now the U.S. government is borrowing about forty cents of every dollar it spends!
We are now watching just such a bond crisis force government into action. But it isn’t our government—it’s happening before our eyes in Europe.
Ironically, and it’s a huge irony, U.S. government bond prices continue to rise and interest rates continue to fall because as bad as our problems are, Europe looks worse. But with the latest American failure to govern, how long will that last? The flight to American “quality” that is propping up our deficit spending is as irrational and unsustainable as any of our other recent economic “bubbles.”
To fix the American debt crisis we will need to fix our entitlement problems. To do that, there will have to be major changes to the biggest entitlement driver—health care costs in Medicare, Medicaid, and even federal employee benefit costs.
As long as we have a divided government we are stalemated—not only over what to do with Medicare and Medicaid but over what we will eventually do about implementing the Affordable Care Act as well.
All of this will now effectively be on hold waiting for the results of the 2012 elections. If the outcome of those elections continues to be a divided government it is hard to see how we’ll have a solution even after 2012—short of an American bond crisis forcing things to change.
I can’t realistically see a Democratic sweep in the next election—that they recapture the House and hold the Senate and the White House.
But it is possible that Republicans will win all three. That would end the deadlock and likely mean the effective repeal of the Affordable Care Act (at least 51 votes in the Senate could gut it), as well as serious efforts toward the Republican “solution” to the entitlements and the under-age-65 health insurance market along the lines of the Ryan defined contribution proposals.
It is also possible that Obama could be reelected and have to face a Republican House and Senate—and even more political confrontation with a Republican Congress sending a Democratic President their health care and debt fixes. Maybe, after the election, both sides would be willing to deal. Maybe not, the current political environment that abhors compromise would have to change dramatically.
Layer on top of all of this the sharp cuts the defense and homeland security budget will now get because of the debt deal fallback provisions—defense will have to sustain $600 billion in cuts. I don’t consider myself a deficit hawk but it is hard to see how these defense cuts can be implemented. Combat forces are already at half of 1990 levels and the defense budget spending is already on its way to the lowest level as a percentage of GDP since 1940.
That the defense cuts are unsustainable likely means the Congress will find a way to reverse them and make the federal debt situation even worse than it is today.
This country is facing one of the greatest domestic political and economic challenges in its history—our debt level as a percentage of GDP is double what it was at the end of the Great Depression! The modern economic way of life we have become accustomed to is literally hanging in the balance. But our political institutions are now clearly unable to confront the problems. The 2012 elections could finally give one side or the other the ability to confront these issues in a way that is starkly different than the way the other guys would have. Or, the election could just give us another divided government still unable to deal with the growing crisis.
More stalemate would leave only one outcome I can foresee—a global U.S. bond crisis that would literally stop the federal government in its tracks and the entire American economy with it. Such a sobering crisis could well force political moderation and compromise—hopefully before it was too late.
The 2012 elections are a big deal. But it will likely take even more—lots of something we haven’t seen in a long while—statesmanship.
I don’t know why. Republicans can’t vote for more taxes unless they're willing to get “primaried” from the right and risk losing their seat. Ditto for Democrats who would face the same punishment from their base if they voted to change the sacred defined benefit entitlements without at least getting tax concessions from the Republicans.
Obviously, neither side has a lot of statesmen in their ranks who would actually be willing to compromise.
In this hyper-partisan environment, where both parties are effectively in the control of their far left and far right bases, it is simply not possible for any meaningful bipartisan compromise.
Some time ago on this blog, I said that we wouldn’t get any meaningful effort to deal with the federal debt and entitlement challenge until there was a bond crisis—when investors would no longer be willing to lend to the U.S. government at reasonable rates without our first getting our unsustainable debt under control. Right now the U.S. government is borrowing about forty cents of every dollar it spends!
We are now watching just such a bond crisis force government into action. But it isn’t our government—it’s happening before our eyes in Europe.
Ironically, and it’s a huge irony, U.S. government bond prices continue to rise and interest rates continue to fall because as bad as our problems are, Europe looks worse. But with the latest American failure to govern, how long will that last? The flight to American “quality” that is propping up our deficit spending is as irrational and unsustainable as any of our other recent economic “bubbles.”
To fix the American debt crisis we will need to fix our entitlement problems. To do that, there will have to be major changes to the biggest entitlement driver—health care costs in Medicare, Medicaid, and even federal employee benefit costs.
As long as we have a divided government we are stalemated—not only over what to do with Medicare and Medicaid but over what we will eventually do about implementing the Affordable Care Act as well.
All of this will now effectively be on hold waiting for the results of the 2012 elections. If the outcome of those elections continues to be a divided government it is hard to see how we’ll have a solution even after 2012—short of an American bond crisis forcing things to change.
I can’t realistically see a Democratic sweep in the next election—that they recapture the House and hold the Senate and the White House.
But it is possible that Republicans will win all three. That would end the deadlock and likely mean the effective repeal of the Affordable Care Act (at least 51 votes in the Senate could gut it), as well as serious efforts toward the Republican “solution” to the entitlements and the under-age-65 health insurance market along the lines of the Ryan defined contribution proposals.
It is also possible that Obama could be reelected and have to face a Republican House and Senate—and even more political confrontation with a Republican Congress sending a Democratic President their health care and debt fixes. Maybe, after the election, both sides would be willing to deal. Maybe not, the current political environment that abhors compromise would have to change dramatically.
Layer on top of all of this the sharp cuts the defense and homeland security budget will now get because of the debt deal fallback provisions—defense will have to sustain $600 billion in cuts. I don’t consider myself a deficit hawk but it is hard to see how these defense cuts can be implemented. Combat forces are already at half of 1990 levels and the defense budget spending is already on its way to the lowest level as a percentage of GDP since 1940.
That the defense cuts are unsustainable likely means the Congress will find a way to reverse them and make the federal debt situation even worse than it is today.
This country is facing one of the greatest domestic political and economic challenges in its history—our debt level as a percentage of GDP is double what it was at the end of the Great Depression! The modern economic way of life we have become accustomed to is literally hanging in the balance. But our political institutions are now clearly unable to confront the problems. The 2012 elections could finally give one side or the other the ability to confront these issues in a way that is starkly different than the way the other guys would have. Or, the election could just give us another divided government still unable to deal with the growing crisis.
More stalemate would leave only one outcome I can foresee—a global U.S. bond crisis that would literally stop the federal government in its tracks and the entire American economy with it. Such a sobering crisis could well force political moderation and compromise—hopefully before it was too late.
The 2012 elections are a big deal. But it will likely take even more—lots of something we haven’t seen in a long while—statesmanship.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
The Health Leadership Council Medicare Proposal: Too Much Responsibility on Beneficiaries and Not Enough on Providers
The Health Leadership Council (HLC), a coalition of CEOs from many of the leading health care companies, has created a list of Medicare reform recommendations for the Super Committee tasked with finding at least $1.2 trillion in budget savings.
As we begin the national debate over what to do about Medicare's unsustainable costs, I will suggest that the HLC proposal gives us one, of what will have to be many, outlines for discussion.
Their recommendations include:
The HLC’s suggestions have merit but, I will suggest, make the same fundamental mistake the Republican adopted Paul Ryan proposal made: They put all the onus for Medicare savings on the beneficiary—not the providers and not the insurance companies.
No Medicare reform proposal can be enacted if it does not protect Medicare beneficiaries by assuring them that it can achieve affordable costs.
The HLC would create a Medicare premium support based upon the average cost of a Medicare plan—and then increase that by GDP+1% in each subsequent year. That makes sense—the beneficiary support starts where costs are at inception and then increases by a factor (GDP+1%), which is reasonable for beneficiaries and providers and sustainable for the country.
In fact, I will suggest, that any final Medicare reform proposal will likely contain a cap of GDP+1% both because it gives the country an affordable objective and because it preserves spending at current levels plus a reasonable rate of growth.
But the problem with the HLC proposal is just what risk and responsibility does it transfer to health care providers and insurers? If the government premium support isn’t enough, providers can just demand more from insurers, and insurers in turn can just make up the difference by increasing premiums for seniors. There is certainly some upward limit on what people can pay, but the tension will always be to shift costs to the beneficiary as costs escalated.
More, the system would almost certainly become even more tiered than it is today. The Medicare option could easily look more and more like Medicaid as those able to afford better coverage fled to the more expensive private plans and those unable to pay the free market increases would have no alternative but the Medicare fee-for-service plan that stayed viable by paying providers less—and as a result looked more and more like Medicaid.
The HLC’s suggestion to increase the eligibility age for Medicare beginning in 2014 is a non-starter. The Congress might end up increasing the Medicare eligibility age at some point. But it won’t be done for people nearing retirement age—who have done their retirement planning presuming an age-65 eligibility. The Super Committee must come up with savings in the 10-year budget window—and that is too soon for any Medicare eligibility age change.
There is also growing evidence that pushing back the retirement age simply shifts costs to the pre-retirement market at an even higher cost than what it costs for Medicare to cover these beneficiaries.
The HLC's means testing recommendations call for more cost sharing as a strategy to focus seniors attention on cost control. As a concept, this makes sense and could well be part of any final Super Committee plan--but it all depends upon the details.
The HLC’s tort reform ideas are far too incremental—they call for capping payments on what is a fundamentally flawed system. Why not fix the system rather than Band-Aid it? Proposals for health courts and no-fault resolution that emphasize data collection and quality improvement would have been more the kind of proposals I would have expected from the HLC.
The Health Leadership Council’s recommendations do create a structure that gives seniors more incentives to purchase the most efficient health plans, put a reasonable limit on what our country can spend on the Medicare entitlement, and recognize that more cost sharing, particularly for higher income beneficiaries, and a later eligibility age, will ultimately be part of the solution.
But just what are all the insurance companies and drug companies that are part of this group willing to do to put some of their “skin” in the game?
For those convinced that just putting the market in charge will control costs and produce affordable premiums, a recent post: Inconvenient Facts for Both Republicans and Democrats—Neither Side’s Health Care Proposals Are Supported By Past Performance
As we begin the national debate over what to do about Medicare's unsustainable costs, I will suggest that the HLC proposal gives us one, of what will have to be many, outlines for discussion.
Their recommendations include:
- Creating a new Medicare Exchange, beginning in 2018, where beneficiaries would have the choice of private Medicare plans as well as the traditional Medicare plan. The HLC proposal would be a defined contribution program much like the Republican Ryan plan but would differ from Paul Ryan’s in a couple of key ways. First, in the HLC proposal traditional Medicare would continue to be one of the options. Second, the annual increase in the beneficiary support premium would be more generous—the HLC is proposing an annual premium support increase equal to GDP plus 1%.
- Gradually increasing the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67—starting in 2014.
- Reforming Medicare’s cost sharing structure by increasing deductibles and co-pays as well as requiring high-income beneficiaries to pay the full cost of Medicare Part B.
- Implementing medical liability reform including a cap on non-economic damages, a one-year statute of limitations, and a “fair share” provision that would limit damages commensurate with responsibility for the injury.
The HLC’s suggestions have merit but, I will suggest, make the same fundamental mistake the Republican adopted Paul Ryan proposal made: They put all the onus for Medicare savings on the beneficiary—not the providers and not the insurance companies.
No Medicare reform proposal can be enacted if it does not protect Medicare beneficiaries by assuring them that it can achieve affordable costs.
The HLC would create a Medicare premium support based upon the average cost of a Medicare plan—and then increase that by GDP+1% in each subsequent year. That makes sense—the beneficiary support starts where costs are at inception and then increases by a factor (GDP+1%), which is reasonable for beneficiaries and providers and sustainable for the country.
In fact, I will suggest, that any final Medicare reform proposal will likely contain a cap of GDP+1% both because it gives the country an affordable objective and because it preserves spending at current levels plus a reasonable rate of growth.
But the problem with the HLC proposal is just what risk and responsibility does it transfer to health care providers and insurers? If the government premium support isn’t enough, providers can just demand more from insurers, and insurers in turn can just make up the difference by increasing premiums for seniors. There is certainly some upward limit on what people can pay, but the tension will always be to shift costs to the beneficiary as costs escalated.
More, the system would almost certainly become even more tiered than it is today. The Medicare option could easily look more and more like Medicaid as those able to afford better coverage fled to the more expensive private plans and those unable to pay the free market increases would have no alternative but the Medicare fee-for-service plan that stayed viable by paying providers less—and as a result looked more and more like Medicaid.
The HLC’s suggestion to increase the eligibility age for Medicare beginning in 2014 is a non-starter. The Congress might end up increasing the Medicare eligibility age at some point. But it won’t be done for people nearing retirement age—who have done their retirement planning presuming an age-65 eligibility. The Super Committee must come up with savings in the 10-year budget window—and that is too soon for any Medicare eligibility age change.
There is also growing evidence that pushing back the retirement age simply shifts costs to the pre-retirement market at an even higher cost than what it costs for Medicare to cover these beneficiaries.
The HLC's means testing recommendations call for more cost sharing as a strategy to focus seniors attention on cost control. As a concept, this makes sense and could well be part of any final Super Committee plan--but it all depends upon the details.
The HLC’s tort reform ideas are far too incremental—they call for capping payments on what is a fundamentally flawed system. Why not fix the system rather than Band-Aid it? Proposals for health courts and no-fault resolution that emphasize data collection and quality improvement would have been more the kind of proposals I would have expected from the HLC.
The Health Leadership Council’s recommendations do create a structure that gives seniors more incentives to purchase the most efficient health plans, put a reasonable limit on what our country can spend on the Medicare entitlement, and recognize that more cost sharing, particularly for higher income beneficiaries, and a later eligibility age, will ultimately be part of the solution.
But just what are all the insurance companies and drug companies that are part of this group willing to do to put some of their “skin” in the game?
For those convinced that just putting the market in charge will control costs and produce affordable premiums, a recent post: Inconvenient Facts for Both Republicans and Democrats—Neither Side’s Health Care Proposals Are Supported By Past Performance
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
The Debt Super Committee—Will We Get a Deal?
It’s back to work in Washington, DC and all the attention is now on the Super Committee and their goal of cutting spending by at least $1.2 trillion over ten years.
If the committee fails to come up with a plan that passes the Congress, there would be $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts. The health care special interests have reason to hope they will fail—the fallback cuts would only impact Medicare providers in a small way—2% in provider cuts—and not directly impact beneficiaries or Medicaid generally. Any Super Committee deal would likely be more far reaching if for no other reason than to protect the defense budget from the huge cuts the fallback would require.
But the fallback would not solve any of the systemic problems the health care entitlements face and only prolong the inevitable day of fiscal reckoning.
Even a $1.2 trillion reduction—$2.1 trillion with the additional $915 billion reduction in discretionary spending that was part of the deal—is only a down payment on solving America’s fiscal woes—we face a $10 trillion budget shortfall over the next ten years.
Will the Super Committee succeed? That’s the big question in Washington.
Many believe it cannot succeed because all of the fundamental policy differences between conservatives and liberals remain while many in both parties think failure and taking the issues to the next election makes political sense.
Others worry that the fallback cuts to defense are so great that outcome has to be avoided and the committee just has to be serious about finding a solution. Add to that the political consequences of failure with voters, who watched the debt ceiling talks and are more disgusted than ever before. The latest polls say the voters are now looking to “throw the bums out” no matter which party they’re in if they don’t grow up and start solving problems.
With federal health care costs being the biggest deficit driver the Super Committee has another impossible challenge. No one wants to cut the Medicare benefits of current retirees or those who will retire in the near-term. But the Super Committee has only a ten-year budget window that it has to work within. How do you reduce Medicare spending between now and 2021 but not hurt a current retiree or someone whose plans for retirement assume Medicare benefits won't change?
My sense is that if we see another messy political stalemate in the Super Committee the next election will be about throwing the incumbents out—Democrat and Republican. I am hopeful both sides understand they need a deal, or the 2012 political consequences will be dire for anyone now holding a federal office.
But, as I said during last summer’s debt ceiling debate, just exactly how both sides, which have been so intransigent, can find a way to compromise isn’t clear to me.
One scenario for what could will happen suggests that the Super Committee will not be able to come to an agreement, the $1.2 trillion fallback trigger's automatic cuts would take effect, and the impact of that trigger, primarily on defense, would be so bad that the Congress would be forced to revisit the entire deal in 2013––after the election. Think of the annual Medicare physician Sustainable Growth Rate fiasco but every year for the whole budget until a consensus in the country can develop about how to permanently fix this.
But more failure at reaching a deal will only make the voters more mad then they already are--if that is possible.
Some have suggested the real solution is to "go big"--agree to a real longer-term solution that begins the process of entitlement reform that is inevitable. While "going big" is arguably the right thing to do it would also mean a "great compromise." Something both the far left and the far right would find anathema in this hyper-charged 2012 election environment. A grand compromise would likely mean more taxes and deep entitlement cuts--something that members of Congress aren't likely to do for fear of retribution from their respective base with the primary season just months away. Can you imagine what the Tea Party would do during primary season to any Republican who voted for a tax increase? Or, what the left would do to a liberal that "sold out" the entitlements?
Another scenario, suggested by a report last May from the Committee for a Responsible Government, details almost $1 trillion in a wide variety of smaller scale common ground budget cuts already proposed by both Republicans and Democrats. This list illustrates that there might be a means to eek out $1.2 trillion in savings and avoid having to deal with the most controversial ideas--tax increases and at least far reaching entitlement reform.
The Super Committee has an almost impossible job in front of them. Any "go big" and systemic solutions I can think of would appear to be politically impossible. Maybe they can kick the can down the road one more time. Maybe not.
What a mess.
If the committee fails to come up with a plan that passes the Congress, there would be $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts. The health care special interests have reason to hope they will fail—the fallback cuts would only impact Medicare providers in a small way—2% in provider cuts—and not directly impact beneficiaries or Medicaid generally. Any Super Committee deal would likely be more far reaching if for no other reason than to protect the defense budget from the huge cuts the fallback would require.
But the fallback would not solve any of the systemic problems the health care entitlements face and only prolong the inevitable day of fiscal reckoning.
Even a $1.2 trillion reduction—$2.1 trillion with the additional $915 billion reduction in discretionary spending that was part of the deal—is only a down payment on solving America’s fiscal woes—we face a $10 trillion budget shortfall over the next ten years.
Will the Super Committee succeed? That’s the big question in Washington.
Many believe it cannot succeed because all of the fundamental policy differences between conservatives and liberals remain while many in both parties think failure and taking the issues to the next election makes political sense.
Others worry that the fallback cuts to defense are so great that outcome has to be avoided and the committee just has to be serious about finding a solution. Add to that the political consequences of failure with voters, who watched the debt ceiling talks and are more disgusted than ever before. The latest polls say the voters are now looking to “throw the bums out” no matter which party they’re in if they don’t grow up and start solving problems.
With federal health care costs being the biggest deficit driver the Super Committee has another impossible challenge. No one wants to cut the Medicare benefits of current retirees or those who will retire in the near-term. But the Super Committee has only a ten-year budget window that it has to work within. How do you reduce Medicare spending between now and 2021 but not hurt a current retiree or someone whose plans for retirement assume Medicare benefits won't change?
My sense is that if we see another messy political stalemate in the Super Committee the next election will be about throwing the incumbents out—Democrat and Republican. I am hopeful both sides understand they need a deal, or the 2012 political consequences will be dire for anyone now holding a federal office.
But, as I said during last summer’s debt ceiling debate, just exactly how both sides, which have been so intransigent, can find a way to compromise isn’t clear to me.
One scenario for what could will happen suggests that the Super Committee will not be able to come to an agreement, the $1.2 trillion fallback trigger's automatic cuts would take effect, and the impact of that trigger, primarily on defense, would be so bad that the Congress would be forced to revisit the entire deal in 2013––after the election. Think of the annual Medicare physician Sustainable Growth Rate fiasco but every year for the whole budget until a consensus in the country can develop about how to permanently fix this.
But more failure at reaching a deal will only make the voters more mad then they already are--if that is possible.
Some have suggested the real solution is to "go big"--agree to a real longer-term solution that begins the process of entitlement reform that is inevitable. While "going big" is arguably the right thing to do it would also mean a "great compromise." Something both the far left and the far right would find anathema in this hyper-charged 2012 election environment. A grand compromise would likely mean more taxes and deep entitlement cuts--something that members of Congress aren't likely to do for fear of retribution from their respective base with the primary season just months away. Can you imagine what the Tea Party would do during primary season to any Republican who voted for a tax increase? Or, what the left would do to a liberal that "sold out" the entitlements?
Another scenario, suggested by a report last May from the Committee for a Responsible Government, details almost $1 trillion in a wide variety of smaller scale common ground budget cuts already proposed by both Republicans and Democrats. This list illustrates that there might be a means to eek out $1.2 trillion in savings and avoid having to deal with the most controversial ideas--tax increases and at least far reaching entitlement reform.
The Super Committee has an almost impossible job in front of them. Any "go big" and systemic solutions I can think of would appear to be politically impossible. Maybe they can kick the can down the road one more time. Maybe not.
What a mess.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Shame on AARP For Their Response to the Deficit Commission Co-Chairs' Report
The Co-Chairs of the President’s Deficit Reduction Commission are out with their preliminary recommendations.
They’ve done a great job—they’ve offended about everyone!
But we have a nearly impossible but unsustainable challenge in front of us if we are ever going to crawl out of this deep hole.
It is not so much what is on their list as what this list tells us about just how fundamental the changes are going to have to be for anyone who depends in any way on the federal government—which would be everyone in this country born or going to be born for decades to come.
In fact, the preliminary report calls for the Congress to revisit the Public Option if health care costs don’t meet a set of initial five-year targets. Nothing has been left off the table whether it is an unfettered discussion of how bad things are or the wide range of controversial options that now must be considered.
So how does AARP respond to the truth about the problem and an honest attempt to deal with it?
Some separate quotes from their press release yesterday in response to the report:
Of course any report like this is going to be "dead on arrival" on Capitol Hill. But it's real value is that it can be the beginning of an honest discussion on what we will have to do.
AARP has lots of people at its Washington headquarters that understand these problems better than most and very much care about maintaining the integrity of our entitlement programs.
I expected a lot more from them.
AARP should be doing its part getting our people ready for change not pretending that it can somehow be painlessly avoided.
AARP should be taking the lead in explaining to seniors, and those on their way to becoming seniors, just what the problems are and just how fundamental the change is going to have to be if we are in fact going to hand our children and grandchildren a sustainable American Dream.
Shame on AARP! If anyone could be providing critically important leadership here it is them.
Download the Co-Chair's Report
They’ve done a great job—they’ve offended about everyone!
But we have a nearly impossible but unsustainable challenge in front of us if we are ever going to crawl out of this deep hole.
It is not so much what is on their list as what this list tells us about just how fundamental the changes are going to have to be for anyone who depends in any way on the federal government—which would be everyone in this country born or going to be born for decades to come.
In fact, the preliminary report calls for the Congress to revisit the Public Option if health care costs don’t meet a set of initial five-year targets. Nothing has been left off the table whether it is an unfettered discussion of how bad things are or the wide range of controversial options that now must be considered.
So how does AARP respond to the truth about the problem and an honest attempt to deal with it?
Some separate quotes from their press release yesterday in response to the report:
“With the release of the Co-Chairs’ proposal from the President’s Fiscal Commission today, AARP has responded with concern about how these recommendations would hurt the health and financial security of middle class Americans in particular, and believes that the proposal is contrary to the best interests of American families.”I liked Senate Budget Chair Kent Conrad’s response a whole lot more, "People can say we want to keep what is. What is is not affordable.”
“During these tough economic times, the last thing we should be considering is targeting the guaranteed, inflation-protected Social Security benefits that millions of Americans count on every day,’ said Nancy LeaMond, AARP Executive Vice President.”
“We're also deeply concerned that the Co-Chairs' Proposals would aim to reduce the deficit by shifting health care costs onto seniors in Medicare. Raising costs on the sick and the most economically vulnerable is both wrong and counter-productive policy. Instead, we should be focused on efforts to lower costs throughout the health care system.”
Of course any report like this is going to be "dead on arrival" on Capitol Hill. But it's real value is that it can be the beginning of an honest discussion on what we will have to do.
AARP has lots of people at its Washington headquarters that understand these problems better than most and very much care about maintaining the integrity of our entitlement programs.
I expected a lot more from them.
AARP should be doing its part getting our people ready for change not pretending that it can somehow be painlessly avoided.
AARP should be taking the lead in explaining to seniors, and those on their way to becoming seniors, just what the problems are and just how fundamental the change is going to have to be if we are in fact going to hand our children and grandchildren a sustainable American Dream.
Shame on AARP! If anyone could be providing critically important leadership here it is them.
Download the Co-Chair's Report
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