Reports of the death of Medicare may have been greatly exaggerated by all parties when it came to national elections? Medicare itself has become a popular sounding drum on which to beat the rhythms of war in an undisguised effort to scare senior citizens into voting one way or the other. And both parties are equally responsible for the action and misuse of the Medicare alarm instead of focusing on finding solutions to fix the problem and take care of our seniors.
To understand what is being said when political figures talk about Medicare going broke, we need to first understand that Medicare consists of four main parts.
- Part A covers hospital insurance
- Part B covers medical insurance
- Part C is medical advantage or private plans for A and B
- Part D covers prescription drug benefits.
Of these only part A will have all its funds depleted by 2024, or sooner unless we take serious action to remove the political hands from the cookie jar. Simultaneously there is a specific need to take away the political war mongering and posturing from this complex and challenging problem. Despite everything we are told or chose to believe there can be little doubt that we cannot allow any of the parts of Medicare to go into the red without seriously affecting the national debt in a very bad way.
Recently I read an article in the Washington Post that talked about how the majority of funds (87% in 2024 and 67% in 2050) could still be paid out by the government and that the talk about Medicare’s demise was a bipartisan foul. Fundamentally this may be true but the author of this article, and indeed many commentators, miss the point. We have been robbing from Peter to pay Paul for so long that it seems natural that we should now rob Paul to pay Peter. Of course the fact that Paul is broke never enters the equation; we can simply borrow more money from the Japanese or Chinese.
One of the sad parts of this discussion, is one that is not being discussed enough. I am referring to the rampant abuse and mistreatment of seniors across the nation in nursing homes that have no discrimination based on the economic situation of the patient. This is an ongoing and terrifying problem that needs to be addressed as we continue to address the challenges faced by our seniors in other arenas like medicare. According to Hughes and Coleman “Most victims of elder abuse tend to be silent victims who suffer their pain and misery without saying anything to anybody.”
We cannot allow our seniors to suffer quietly as the benefits they paid for slip slowly away, even if the rate of loss is slower or less intrusive than we first thought. Our seniors deserve our attention and we need to start facing the facts on Medicare and addressing their challenges.
