Medicare beneficiaries continue to worry what will happen to Medicare during President elect Donald Trump’s term in office. House Speaker Paul D Ryan (R- Wis.), is already laying the groundwork to privatize it while Trump said on the campaign trail he would “not touch Medicare or Social Security.”
On November 10th, Ryan told Fox News, “Because of Obamacare, Medicare is going broke.”
The opposite is true. Obamacare extended the life of the Medicare Part A Trust fund to 2028 and added preventive benefits for Medicare beneficiaries.
The word broke implies all of Medicare is going to collapse and that is absolutely false. The Medicare Part A Hospital trust fund was extended to meet its full obligations to 2028. After that, Part A would not be able to fully fund Hospital benefits, but could only fund 87 percent of expenses and 79 percent in 2040.
This projected shortfall is due to in the influx of 10,000 baby boomers entering Medicare every day during the next 20 years. While Part A is funded with payroll taxes from employees and employers, there are fewer workers to pay for retiree benefits.
Part B of Medicare’s doctor coverage expense and Part D (prescriptions), is paid out of general funds and premiums from Medicare beneficiaries. Premiums can be adjusted when costs rise, and this is happening now.
Fact checkers and inside whistle blowers like Wendell Potter tell the real story why there is a movement to privatize Medicare. And, the reason is not because its going broke.
The move to privatize is primarily driven by the insurance industry’s hefty campaign cash contributions for members of Congress through aggressive
lobbying activities to guarantee excessive profits and maximize their stockholder share values. https://www.publicintegrity.org/2011/09/22/6694/analysis-dont-turn-your-back-ryans-medicare-plan
Read the link published by Wendell Potter of the Center for Public Integrity and former Cigna Executive turned whistleblower on the inner workings of the Health industry as he reveals “fly on the wall” information on how they deceive the public.
