Retirement Income Strategist, KJ Financial, Liberty, Missouri
It's difficult to gauge what the ultimate goal of any politician is, that being said it appears the current administration is trying to get the costs associated with Medicare reduced. It appears they have put into the healthcare law a non-elected board that pretty much has ultimate power and has charged them with reducing how much Medicare will reimburse. From what I've gathered this is done to help reduce costs. Ultimately, only the President knows his real intentions. I hope that helps.
Certainly President Obama has never publicly made any statement that would indicate a plan to take away Medicare and to do so would be an act of political suicide. Whatever position you may take on our president's actions, results or intentions, he has demonstrated some pretty keen political survival skills.
The more appropriate question would be "Are the President's health care policies going to have a negative or positive effect on Medicare?" An examination of the Affordable Care Act and its funding mechanisms shed more light on this subject. To help pay for the expansion of health care for those under age 65 and to provide the premium subsidies for persons earning less than 400% of the Federal Poverty Level you will find that approximately $700 billion dollars in what would have been increased spending on Medicare are being diverted to ObamaCare over the next decade. We will still be spending more on Medicare 10 years from now than today but at reduced levels and at precisely the time when more Americans than ever will be moving into Medicare as the Baby Boom generation fully enters its Medicare years. The net consequence of this would seem to be negative to the Medicare population.
Projected reimbursement levels to health care providers for serving Medicare patients (already thought to be below or at the cost of providing these services by many health care providers) are expected to steadily decline in the coming years and I have seen reports indicating that they will fall below reimbursement levels for Medicaid patients. The number of physicians accepting new Medicare patients is already a national problem and if reimbursement level decline as predicted this will only make the access problem worse for senior citizens.
And, yes, a national review board is supposed to provide "guidance" on appropriate treatments for seniors though the composition of this body and any recommendations they will be making are unclear at this time. This is the so called "Death Panel" some have referred to. This term may be overstated but as described in the health care reform law it will have great latitude in its decision making and little outside oversight.
So, I will conclude by saying that the reasonably expected impact of the health care reform law on the Medicare population does not bode well and will make it even harder for the program to live up to the expectations of the persons who will be covered by it. Remember, while campaigning, then Senator Obama, when asked by a person if his program would pay for a pacemaker to be implanted in her 100+ year old mother who was still active, had a will to live and wanted to enjoy a good quality of life, said in response that "will to live" was a subjective measure that would be impossible to administer and that perhaps the best response would be for her mother to just take a pain pill. Though to be fair, he didn't say whether she should just take a pain pill as needed or to take a handful and wash them down with some Jack Daniels.
Great question! I think it is safe to say you would not hear ANY politician go public with his or her desire to remove medicare ( Unless you are supported by the Koch brothers, they have made some statements towards the removal of all government assistance programs in which case their money might trump the fear of not being elected). Politics aside ( and I'm not taking one) just simple mathematics doom our medicare program as it stands. Without a change in spending or an increase in revenue, our current program goes belly up in 2023. Social Security follows about 10 years later. We have approximately 10,000 Seniors turning 65 every day, and most are not prepared to deal with the costs of long term medical care, and are reliant on the Medicare/Medicaid programs. With a shrinking workforce and an increasing user base, something has to give. For a really good explanation of the situation, Google Professor Michael Granof's (Economics Prof. at the University of Texas) lecture "American's- living rich, retiring poor". Pretty sobering stuff. If there is anything I can do to help, feel free to contact me. Thanks for asking!
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The more appropriate question would be "Are the President's health care policies going to have a negative or positive effect on Medicare?" An examination of the Affordable Care Act and its funding mechanisms shed more light on this subject. To help pay for the expansion of health care for those under age 65 and to provide the premium subsidies for persons earning less than 400% of the Federal Poverty Level you will find that approximately $700 billion dollars in what would have been increased spending on Medicare are being diverted to ObamaCare over the next decade. We will still be spending more on Medicare 10 years from now than today but at reduced levels and at precisely the time when more Americans than ever will be moving into Medicare as the Baby Boom generation fully enters its Medicare years. The net consequence of this would seem to be negative to the Medicare population.
Projected reimbursement levels to health care providers for serving Medicare patients (already thought to be below or at the cost of providing these services by many health care providers) are expected to steadily decline in the coming years and I have seen reports indicating that they will fall below reimbursement levels for Medicaid patients. The number of physicians accepting new Medicare patients is already a national problem and if reimbursement level decline as predicted this will only make the access problem worse for senior citizens.
And, yes, a national review board is supposed to provide "guidance" on appropriate treatments for seniors though the composition of this body and any recommendations they will be making are unclear at this time. This is the so called "Death Panel" some have referred to. This term may be overstated but as described in the health care reform law it will have great latitude in its decision making and little outside oversight.
So, I will conclude by saying that the reasonably expected impact of the health care reform law on the Medicare population does not bode well and will make it even harder for the program to live up to the expectations of the persons who will be covered by it. Remember, while campaigning, then Senator Obama, when asked by a person if his program would pay for a pacemaker to be implanted in her 100+ year old mother who was still active, had a will to live and wanted to enjoy a good quality of life, said in response that "will to live" was a subjective measure that would be impossible to administer and that perhaps the best response would be for her mother to just take a pain pill. Though to be fair, he didn't say whether she should just take a pain pill as needed or to take a handful and wash them down with some Jack Daniels.