Is Medicare really safe from budget cuts?

Thanks for the news rated up.

Excellent reporting on a topic that needs to be discussed. I hope Medicare is around when I retire, but that is not for another 30 years. The fact of the matter is, I do not agree with the privatization of Medicare. However, with unfunded future liabilities at $89 trillion dollars, serious changes have to be made to Medicare and leading economists have stated that the changes will not be popular.

You state in your article that Americans have overwhelmingly disagreed according to the polls in transforming Medicare into a voucher program which concurs with what leading economists have predicted. The problem is, we need changes to the Medicare program because we are unable to pay the $89 trillion. However, the only changes that have been set forth are from interested parties like lobbyists who would stand to make a profit from the privatization of Medicare, a reason why the American public continues to get horrible alternatives. If the American public could just appoint a team of independent economists uninterested with the outcome and preferably from a different country, who could analyze the Medicare landscape and tell us how we could keep the majority of services and coverages Medicare does provide and reduce the amount of unfunded future liabilities by requiring $10 office visits, for example, or having a $250 yearly deductible, $5 copay for prescription medication, etc.

Only time will tell the ending of this story - I just hope it is a happy and healthy one.

Rated up!

well written - thank you

the solution to the US healthcare problem is ti get private for profit insurance companies OUT of it not give them more control. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that it's the for-profit insurance companies that are driving costs up.

insurance co lobbyists have been using politicians to sell scare tactics to make the public think that Medicare for all is bad. Yes - bad for the insurance companies, not the people or the health of the country.

what we have now is not sustainable because private insurance companies' quest for more record profits is sucking the country dry. At some point down the road, healthcare will be so expensive, only the wealthy will be able to afford it - and that is rationing of the worst kind because it is decided by economic class.

cutting Medicare is not the answer - funding it and controlling costs are. No other civilized nation on earth lets insurance companies run their healthcare system for profit - only in America. And it is not a form of capitalism that's working.

IF not for govt run Medicare setting fee for service guidelines, the insurance companies would run out of control. If you think premiums are high now, think of what would happen if Medicare price controls were gone?

America's healthcare problems come from public brainwashing by lobbyist-owned politicians who won't look past their own next election.

I like this report. Medicare is necessary and very important to the elderly

So many would be without care...I hope it can be resolved as well as econimcally. What a difficult situation.

healthcare should not be reserved for only the rich or those who can afford insurance. How a country cares for their sick an elderly says a lot about their morality IMO.

Good reporting. Imagine if Social Security were privatized within the last decade and were affected by scams (legal & illegal) like the mortgage/derivatives deregulated garbage financial houses were allowed to foist onto people.

no doubt if private insurance companies are left to their own designs they will rip off millions. jimiham's reference to the mortgage market disaster is a perfect example of how immoral and selfish these people really are.

Since the Ryan–Wyden proposal is based on working principles, there are still many policy questions to resolve. For example, it is silent on the future of Obamacare. Make no mistake: Structural Medicare reform should begin after full repeal of Obamacare. Furthermore, given the depths of our fiscal crisis, the proposal is slow to take effect. The Heritage proposal (http://eng.am/vXRGCN) transitions to premium support beginning in 2016; Ryan–Wyden does not begin until 2022, the same date embodied in the House budget resolution.

Nonetheless, Ryan–Wyden continues the conversation about the need for fundamental structural Medicare reform. Trying to save Medicare through more government price controls will not do. Converting the outdated Medicare program into a premium-support model is the best and more honest way forward (http://eng.am/v8wSp9).