The Fort Collins Coloradoan

July 7, 2011

Republicans have great plans for America’s seniors. They have already voted to privatize
Medicare and want to extend the age for Social security so more Americans can
live in poverty or die before they collect benefits. All of this, while boosting
insurance company profits and voting tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and
corporations.

Social Security doesn’t need an immediate overhaul; there is enough money ($2.5 trillion) in
the trust fund to pay full benefits until 2037 and 80% benefits thereafter.
However, Congress borrowed all of the real money in the trust fund and replaced
it with special issue US Treasury bonds. To redeem these bonds requires more
borrowing which increases the national debt. The problem is not Social Security
but overall Government spending.

There is an easy long term solution for Social Security, remove the cap on payroll
deductions. This keeps Social Security fully funded indefinitely with no cuts
in benefits. Why should workers pay Social Security taxes on all of their wages when the company CEO and Wall Street financiers are done paying in January?

The solutions for Medicare are different but realizable. Medicare Part A
(hospital), which is funded by payroll taxes, has already been addressed by the
Affordable Care Act (Obama Care). The ACA raises the payroll tax from 1.45% to
2.35% for persons making over $200,000 (families $250,000) which should make
this program solvent for years.

Medicare Parts B (doctors) and D (drugs) are funded by Medicare premiums (25%) and monies
transferred from the general fund (75%). These programs compete with all other
Government programs, including Defense, for their funding.

The solution for Medicare Parts B and D must consist of both increasing revenues and
reducing health care costs. Revenues can be increased substantially by letting
the President Bush tax cuts expire and closing corporate tax loopholes, but
this alone will not solve the problem. Health care costs, which have escalated
at 2-3 times other national costs for decades, must be brought under control.

There are ways to reduce Medicare costs; e.g., establish clinics nationwide to treat only
Medicare patients, bundle health care costs for each medical procedure and
expand the use of information technology (IT). Why should there be separate
billings from hospitals, doctors, surgeons, anesthetists, radiologists and
therapists for each surgical procedure? Bundle all of these costs into one
negotiable amount and let health care providers decide how to allocate costs.

For Medicare Part D, eliminate the insurance companies, permit Medicare to negotiate bulk
drug prices with the manufacturers and purchase cheaper FDA approved drugs from
foreign countries. Most drugs purchased in the US are already manufactured in
other countries (read their labels).

Each year Medicare spends $9.5 billion for doctor’s residency training with no
requirement that these doctors ever treat Medicare patients. Require each
doctor that accepts this money to accept Medicare patients and Medicare assigned
payments for 10 years after starting practice. Also establish a yearly quota
for training Geriatricians that specialize in elderly medicine.

Each election, America’s seniors vote heavily for Republicans even though they have strongly opposed Social Security and Medicare since their inception. Seniors must think through the consequences of making the right choices in the 2012 general election. Do we want to sustain these Government safety net programs or return to the “poor houses” and “soup kitchens” of the 1930s?

John Kotson;
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2227 SunstoneDrive,

Fort Collins, 970-229-9352