Issue Position: Medicare and Social Security

Issue Position

Today, nearly 50 million Americans rely on Medicare at a cost of $550 billion annually. At the same time, about 46 million Americans receive Social Security retirement benefits while another 10 million Americans receive disability benefits at a total annual cost of $730 billion for the progam. Yet, Medicare holds about $37 trillion in unfunded obligations while Social Security is projected to run a deficit of $6.5 to $7.9 trillion over the next 75 years. Both programs are at risk of insolvency in the long run.

To ensure that both Medicare and Social Security will be there for future generations, we need to enact meaningful reform. There are a number of options to consider for this.

For both Medicare and Social Security, we should look at increasing the age of eligibility for enrollment in these programs - but only for those under the age of 55. It is important that we keep the programs as they are for those 55 years of age and up. Given that people are living longer than they did when these programs were first created, it makes sense to increase the age of eligibility to be more in line with the average life expectancy.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), if we increased the eligibility age for Medicare by two years, we would save $148 billion over the next decade. If we raised the Early Retirement Age (ERA) for Social Security from 62 to 64 years of age by 2025, we would save $144 billion over the next decade. And if we increased the Full Retirement Age (FRA) for Social Security by two months per year until it reached the age of 70 by 2043, we would save $120 billion over the next decade.

Another proposal for preserving Medicare is the "premium support" model in which beneficiaries would have the option of enrolling in the traditional "fee-for-service" Medicare program or they could choose their own plan for which the government would help pay for their premiums.

With Social Security, another option to consider for ensuring its long-term solvency is means-testing.

Again, these are all options to consider to ensure that these programs will be available for future generations. We simply cannot afford to sit on the sidelines any longer and watch these programs continue down the same path towards insolvency that they've been on for too long.

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