The ‘Seniors Have Eyes, Ears and Teeth Act’ would help millions of Medicare beneficiaries who need vision, hearing and dental care, which is not covered by Medicare. Paying for these services is a hardship for many Medicare beneficiaries, half of whom live on incomes below $23,500 per year.
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#health care #politics #medicare #seniors #entitlements #retirees #retirement #retirement crisis #entitlement reform #p2When a candidate promises to “save these programs for future generations” by raising the retirement age, raising the Medicare eligibility age, privatizing Social Security, changing the COLA formula and means-testing Social Security while exempting near retirees what they’re actually saying is: “We know seniors vote so we’ll protect them now and slash future benefits for their children and grandchildren instead.
Medicare beneficiaries will save, on average, $5,000 over the next ten
years thanks to health care reform provisions. Here are just a few of
the real-life benefits millions of seniors in Medicare would lose
immediately if Republicans have their way and repeal the Affordable Care
Act.
via NCPSSM.
While this has a clear meaning to policy wonks, it is likely that most viewers won’t immediately know that “entitlements” means the Social Security and Medicare their parents receive. It’s a lot easier for politicians to talk about cutting wasteful “entitlements” than taking away seniors’ Social Security and Medicare.
Dean Baker via Truth Out.
Will America’s Seniors Vote Against Their Own Self-Interests…Again?
Rather than acknowledge our national retirement crisis and propose policy prescriptions to improve the ability of average Americans’ to save for retirement and boost benefits for Social Security and Medicare, policy proposals of most of the Republican Presidential candidates do just the opposite – cut benefits and shift more costs to middle-class families.
Under Medicare, coverage for inpatient and outpatient care is determined under very different payment rules. In some cases, a hospital admission classified as inpatient can result in lower bills for beneficiaries.
via Washington Post.
Deficit hawks likely will pressure the White House to accept cuts in Social Security and Medicare for future retirees, protecting those already retired or close to it. Their political goal will be to defang public opposition, since younger workers tend not to focus much on retirement when it is several decades away.
But that approach is not going to work. Retirees and their advocacy groups will fiercely resist cutting benefits down the road, because they understand the critical importance of Social Security and Medicare benefits. They also care about the future retirement of their own children. And numerous polls show that the public opposes benefit cuts - a view that is common across all demographic groups and political affiliations.
via Reuters.
Whether America is facing a “retirement crisis” in which seniors are making do with shrinking financial resources has been widely debated. But here’s a telling metric: Seniors are making a larger share of bankruptcy filings.
That’s the finding of a new paper by academic researchers affiliated with the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, which periodically samples personal bankruptcy filings from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. “Older Americans are increasingly likely to file consumer bankruptcy,” they write, “and their representation among those in bankruptcy has never been higher.”
via Los Angeles Times.
Related Reading:
Looking down the road, the majority in Congress has also proposed to privatize Medicare and raise the eligibility age from 65 to 67. These actions could reduce health care coverage and increase out-of-pocket costs for Arizona’s 1,134,000 seniors and people with disabilities.
Sen. McCain could protect those seniors, many of whom are already struggling to make ends meet. Half of all Medicare beneficiaries in 2014 had incomes below $24,150, and Medicare households spent over two times more than the average American household on out-of-pocket health care costs.
via The Arizona Republic.
…Here we are, eleven years later, facing another existential threat to our health and retirement income security. But this time the threat is worse, the peril more palpable. The millions of workers, retirees, the disabled and their families who depend on Social Security and Medicare have cause for grave concern.
“Medicare is under threat like never before,” Trump said. “Almost every major Democrat in Washington has backed a massive government health care takeover that would totally obliterate Medicare.”
Far from “obliterating’’ Medicare, Sanders says his plan would lower costs and provide new benefits, including coverage for long-term care. Medicare, which covers about 60 million seniors and disabled people, is the government’s flagship health care program.
Trump also signed an executive order directing his administration to pursue changes to Medicare. Much of what he wants to do is geared toward enhancing Medicare Advantage, the private insurance option picked by about one-third of seniors.
via Washington Post.
Related Reading:
While the Trump administration pumps up private Medicare Advantage plans with goodies like rides to the doctor and gym memberships, why hasn’t the president supported at least one of several Democratic bills to expand traditional Medicare to include dental, vision, and hearing coverage?
Today’s speech re-emphasizes that the President has bought into the profits-first-patients-second ideology of his key health care advisers, including budget director and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and Medicare administrator Seema Verma, who have never met a government program they don’t want to privatize.
