Medicare Isn’t Sustainable

During a New Hampshire town meeting Jeb Bush was confronted by a senior citizen after a comment about entitlement reform. The women commented by saying, “My Medicare right now is wonderful and I paid into it for all these years. Why are you always attacking seniors?” Where Bush called it the entitlement system the woman rebutted that she had earned it.

I can see where the woman is coming from in the thought that she has paid into the system, and she has, but not nearly enough to contribute to the cost of her medical care. The level of funding is not adequate to support the current and future Medicare participants. It is expected that the Medicare fund will be insolvent by 2026 . According to Grace Marie Turner, “At best, she will have paid for less than half of the expected cost of her lifetime Medicare expenditures and possibly as little as 8%. Medicare is not sustainable as it is currently structured, and reform is indeed vital.” Take a look at this graph on the cost versus what is actually paid.

As you can see the benefits received far outweigh what was “paid for” and as a common misconception of those currently receiving Medicare it’s a hard issue to reform. As time goes on with the cost of inflation the difference continues rise. This will be an issue that will have to be looked at in the upcoming Presidential term. Have you previously thought that Medicare is completely covered by what you have paid into over your working years? Do you agree that we need reform to the Medicare system?

Read the full article from Grace Marie Turner HERE