Medicare open enrollment season is supposed to be a time when enrollees can choose the best coverage based on accurate, unbiased information from the federal government. Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s enrollment tools show a continuing bias toward private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans over traditional Medicare.
President Trump billed a recent executive order as “protecting and improving Medicare for our nation’s seniors” and “enhancing [Medicare’s] fiscal sustainability,” but it would actually do the opposite. Although many of its proposed changes are vague, and most would require changes in laws or regulations, the order would weaken Medicare and its financing. It would promote private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, which are prone to overpayments, over traditional Medicare.
It could also raise costs for some or all beneficiaries by increasing payment rates to providers; moving toward Medicare premium support, which would likely increase premiums for traditional Medicare; removing limitations on private contracts between patients and providers, thus allowing higher charges for Medicare-covered services; and making it easier for seniors to opt out of Medicare, likely leaving behind a lower-income, sicker patient pool.
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Trump Spreads Medicare Falsehoods in Florida.
Meanwhile, a President who was willing to strip more than 20 million Americans of their health coverage in the blink of an eye has the gumption to paint Democrats as “extremists” on health care. If Medicare is under threat from anyone, it’s Trump and his allies in Congress.
According to AARP, the annual average cost of prescription drugs overall increased nearly 60% between 2012-2017, while Oregonians’ income increased only 14.8%. In 2017, nearly one quarter of the state’s residents rationed pills or skipped medications altogether. Oregon seniors who have suffered the consequences of soaring drug prices shared their stories at the Portland town hall.
via twitter.
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America’s long-term care crisis is worsening.
Long term care is something most of us will need as we grow older…
…Unfortunately, this type of care is extremely expensive, and for many Americans, downright unaffordable. Most seniors simply don’t have the average $100,000 a year for a nursing home, $45,000 for assisted living, or $33,000 for in-home care…
…With millions of seniors and their families struggling to acquire — or provide — much-needed long term care, the time to act is now.
Donald Trump’s signature legislative achievement was the corporate-tax cut he signed in 2017. Republicans said it would grow the economy by up to 6 percent, stimulate business investment, and pay for itself.
None of those promises have come to pass. GDP growth has declined to less than 2 percent according to the latest report, released yesterday. Business investment has now declined for two straight quarters, dragging down economic growth. And the federal deficit exceeds $1 trillion.
These shortcomings alone might be enough to embolden Democrats to fight Trump on economic grounds just one year from a crucial 2020 election. But they’re just the tip of the iceberg.
via The Atlantic.
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Here is how the first tax cuts for the wealthy
affected seniors.
The tax law would leave Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security vulnerable to benefit cuts because of its dramatic $2.3 trillion increase at a minimum in the public debt – an increase that will have to be offset in the future.
Inevitably, current and future generations of older Americans and people with disabilities will be forced to pay a heavy price for this irresponsible law.
via twitter.
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It worked for the wealthy and big corporations because they got a tax cut. It also will add over $1.5 trillion in debt.
You can read more about the tax cuts for the wealthy by clicking here.
Social Security is neither an entitlement nor a tax. It’s an earned benefit that people contribute to from each paycheck. Employers pay half of the premium (which they write off, just as they do for health insurance and other employee benefits). No tax exists that provides a pension benefit, a disability policy, dependent and spousal coverage, and a death benefit, like Social Security does. Nor can anything like it be purchased in the private market. It’s a guarantee that every American understands and relies upon. It’s why this is America’s most important retirement program and America’s number one anti-poverty program.
Here are the facts: to pause and to do nothing by 2035 will result in an about $300 per month cut in benefits for the average retiree and a $250 cut for the average disabled veteran. Poll after poll shows that citizens are willing to pay a little bit extra to get the guarantee that Social Security provides.
via The Hill.
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Rep. John Larson’s ‘Social Security 2100 Act’ would:
- Cut taxes for seniors.
- Strengthen benefits.
- Ensure the system remains solvent for generations.
via twitter.
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The last thing seniors need is for Mitt Romney to get his hands on Social Security.
During his failed 2012 presidential campaign, Romney proposed to raise the Social Security retirement age (a benefit cut) and slow the growth of benefits for some retirees.
More to the point, the rate is way lower than you’d expect given the massive fiscal stimulus policymakers have been pumping into the economy. We were told that the GOP’s corporate tax cuts alone would permanently turbocharge growth to at least 3 percent.
Instead, Trump spent $2 trillion in deficit-financed tax cuts for the rich to get us basically the same growth rate we had before he took office.
The mechanism by which Trump’s signature legislative achievement was supposed to turbocharge growth, according to the tax cut’s advocates, was by stimulating business investment. Instead, business investment fell last quarter, in the second consecutive quarter of contraction.
via Washington Post.
Related Reading:
Here is how the first tax cuts for the wealthy
affected seniors.
The tax law would leave Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security vulnerable to benefit cuts because of its dramatic $2.3 trillion increase at a minimum in the public debt – an increase that will have to be offset in the future.
Inevitably, current and future generations of older Americans and people with disabilities will be forced to pay a heavy price for this irresponsible law.
“The last thing seniors need is for Mitt Romney to get his hands on Social Security. The Utah Senator intends to introduce a bill establishing a ‘Rescue Committee’ which would write legislation to keep the Social Security trust fund solvent for 75 years.
We need only look to recent history to determine what Romney has in mind. During his failed 2012 presidential campaign, Romney proposed to raise the Social Security retirement age and slow the growth of benefits for some retirees.
Read more from our blog post by clicking here.
Like an earlier, failed proposal in the 115th Congress to establish a special Social Security commission, Senator Romney’s ‘rescue committee’ would set up a process that puts benefits at risk, forcing millions of older Americans onto a pathway toward poverty.
via twitter.
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