American Retired Seniors

The Obama Administration announced Tuesday Medicare and Social Security‘s financial health has deteriorated partly because of the current economic recession, expecting the Medicare fund may run out of money by 2017, sooner than previously projected and the Social Security trust fund will also run out of money by 2037 four years sooner than previously thought.

These ‘entitlement’ programs which Seniors and Boomers heavily rely on for their health care and income present a pressing problem for President Obama in a time when his administration is pursuing plans to assist all Americans with health care coverage when these 2 programs currently are the most costly in the entire U.S. federal budget costing taxpayers more than $1 trillion dollars.Labor secretary, Hilda L. Solis, noted that 5.7 million jobs had been lost since the recession began in December 2007. With fewer people working, the government collects less in payroll taxes, a major source of financing for Medicare and Social Security.

Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, said the only way to keep Medicare solvent was to “control runaway growth in both public and private health care expenditures.” And he said Mr. Obama intended to do that as part of his plan to guarantee access to health insurance for all Americans.

The main issue is how to fund these programs in coming years and my concern is the options are limited to tax increases to continue these programs and paying higher Medicare premiums, co-pays and deductibles to help defer the costs even as the President has said he wants Congress to find ways to provide the necessary funding without more deficit spending.

This somewhat dire outlook as already resulted in no Social Security increases in 2010 and 2011.

All this being said, I believe there is greater urgency to reform the health insurance programs now and address the continued price gouging and excessively high health care costs by health insurance companies, hospitals, specialists and prescription drug companies.

The hypocrisy of all of this is Republicans continue to scream President Obama’s proposals amount to socialism when these same politicians participate in the most socialistic form of benefits receiving huge salaries, taxpayer pensions and taxpayer paid health care for all Congressional leaders, along with all the massive lobbyists who stand against taxpayers and put politics and greed over doing what is right to control and even lower health care costs for America’s Seniors and Boomers.  Therefore one way to begin funding assistance would be to have all the money lobbyists are spending to fight against Americans, put into their financial resources into the Medicare Fund!

The rich and powerful are flexing their political muscles and Americans must stand against these corporate powers or else face the results for our own complacency for decades to come.  With close to $900 billion dollars spent on 2 wars being fought by heroic American soldiers, and the nation building effort of Iraq lead by George W Bush, demonstrates how out of touch the powerful are by focusing on spending outside of the U.S. rather than focusing on helping those of us who pay taxes and need help.

As noted by Mary MacElveen on her website, an article written for The Canadian, Dr. David Gagnon, writes: “It has been well documented that the U.S. President George W. Bush administration, used the pretext of verifiably falsified intelligence on the presence of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) in Iraq. Having done that, this same Presidential administration, on behalf of elites, has continued to siphon-off vital U.S. taxpayers’ dollars out of the U.S. civilian economy, and then send that money many thousands of kilometers away, into Iraq, and also Afghanistan. It has been also well documented how these well connected elites have gained access to lucrative contracts as a result of War in Iraq and Afghanistan, often with extremely poor results other than generating great commercial profits.”

Therefore, wars are profitable and hardworking, taxpaying Americans are the first on the ‘chopping block’ when it comes to financing programs for U.S. Citizens.

As many of us face our golden years, we must be proactive by participating in our future by contacting our Congressional Representatives, both Democrat and Republican, to demand the government focuses on the health and affordability of Medicare and Social Security. There can be no national security when America’s older citizens are thrown aside by the rich and powerful who spend our tax dollars anywhere but on America’s Seniors and Boomers.

Also see Robert Reich’s The Truth Behind the Social Security Alarm Bells:

Yes, I know, the post-war Baby Boom is moving through the population like a pig through a python. The number of retirees eligible for benefits will almost double to 79.5 million in 2045 from 40.5 million this year. But we knew that the Boomers were coming then, too. What we didn’t know then was the surge in immigration. Yet immigrants are mostly young. Rather than being a drain on Social Security when the Boomers need it, most immigrants will be contributing to the system during these years, which should take more of the pressure off.

Even if you assume Social Security is a problem, it’s not a big problem. Raise the ceiling slightly on yearly wages subject to Social Security payroll taxes (now a bit over $100,000), and the problem vanishes under harsher assumptions than I’d use about the future. President Obama suggested this in the campaign and stirred up a hornet’s nest because this solution apparently dips too deeply into the middle class, which made him backtrack and begin talking about raising additional Social Security payroll taxes on people earning over $250,000. Social Security would also be in safe shape if it were slightly more means tested, or if the retirement age were raised just a bit. The main point is that Social Security is a tiny problem, as these things go.

Medicare is entirely different. It’s a monster. But fixing it has everything to do with slowing the rate of growth of medical costs — including, let’s not forget, having a public option when it comes to choosing insurance plans under the emerging universal health insurance bill. With a public option, the government can use its bargaining power with drug companies and suppliers of medical services to reduce prices. And, as I’ve noted, keep pressure on private insurers to trim costs yet provide effective medical outcomes.

Don’t be confused by these alarms from the Social Security and Medicare trustees. Social Security is a tiny problem. Medicare is a terrible one, but the problem is not really Medicare; it’s quickly rising health-care costs. Look more closely and the real problem isn’t even health-care costs; it’s a system that pushes up costs by rewarding inefficiency, causing unbelievable waste, pushing over-medication, providing inadequate prevention, over-using emergency rooms because many uninsured people can’t afford regular doctor checkups, and spending billions on advertising and marketing seeking to enroll healthy people and avoid sick ones.

Filed under: Senior Finances and Economy