FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Save Medicare for Seniors
Saul Anuzis, President of the Sixty Plus Association, expressed concern that the newly released annual report of the Medicare Board of Trustees documents the fragility of the Medicare Part A Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund, which pays for inpatient hospital, home health, and dialysis services.
Anuzis stated that the financial and actuarial problems with the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund are similar to the problems with the Social Security Old Age and Survivors (OAS) Trust Fund.
“Both trust funds were raided to spend money on the general operations of the federal government. In turn, the trust funds were given IOUs which must now be repaid to continue to pay benefits,” he said. “As a result, the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund does not meet the Trustees’ test of short-range financial adequacy or their test of long-range actuarial balance.”
If all of the IOUs to the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund are fully repaid, they will be depleted by 2033 and Hospital Insurance revenues will be sufficient to pay for only 89 percent of seniors hospital services. (The OAS Trust Fund will also be depleted in 2033 and seniors will receive only 77% of their monthly Social Security payments,)
“Both Medicare and Social Security are in big trouble and action must be taken immediately to make sure our seniors are taken care of,” Anuzis said.
He said that it was imperative that the Medicare finance problems not be made much worse through extremely counterproductive proposals such as the “Medicare for All” legislation.
“Actually, Medicare for All uses the Medicare name, but it has very little to do with Medicare as such. Rather, it is a proposed government consolidation and takeover of all health care in the United States. It abolishes private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, the Federal Health Benefit Program, the Children’ Health Insurance Program, Workers’ Compensation, and other federal and state health insurance.” Anuzis explained.
Instead, the legislation would create a new Universal Medicare Trust Fund, which would supposedly cover, without deductibles or copayments, all hospital services, ambulances, primary and preventive care, prescription drugs and medical devices, mental health and substance abuse treatments, laboratory and diagnostic services, abortion, transgender surgeries, maternity and newborn care, dental, hearing, and vision services, emergency services, long term care, and hospices.
The Congressional Budget Office has been unable to determine the cost of this legislation, either this year or in any previous year the bill has been introduced. It can only be funded through massive tax increases.
“People may think this dangerous legislation is a hallucination from an ultra-liberal fantasy, but it poses a real danger to the healthcare system of our nation,” Anuzis said. The Senate version, S.1506, by Senator Bernie Sanders (VT) has 15 cosponsors. The House of Representatives version, H.R.
3069, by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), has 105 cosponsors—49% of all Democrats in the House.
“The so-called Medicare for All could actually be enacted into law in the future if conservatives, centrists, and moderate liberals are not vigilant,” he warned.
Saul Anuzis and the 60 Plus Association have surveyed Seniors on the issue, the results of which are attached and which you may quote in your article.
