Washington Watch -- Medicare Trust Fund Needs Quick Remedy
President outlines plans to save Medicare, Social Security.
President Clinton said Mar. 23 that he expects to extend the life of the Medicare trust fund and attach a prescription drug plan to the program that provides medical care for the nation’s elderly.
Clinton attended AFSCME’s Biennial Legislative Conference to garner support for his fiscal year 2000 budget that includes shoring up the Medicare and Social Security programs.
While outlining his budget proposal to the delegation, Clinton said, “I want to work with you on this. You’ve been good to me. You helped me get elected; we’ve done a lot of things together.”
AFSCME supports Clinton’s plan to use 62 percent of the budget surplus to save Social Security and 15 percent for Medicare. The U.S. Congress is wrangling with a budget plan that AFSCME opposes because it would not protect Social Security and Medicare and would give a tax cut to the rich. The House and Senate recently approved companion budget plans that would cut taxes by some $830 billion over the next decade, with a portion of the budget surplus picking up the tab.
MEDICARE NEEDS BOOSTER SHOT. By earmarking 15 percent of the surplus for Medicare, Clinton says the country can extend the solvency of the system with “a defined set of [guaranteed] benefits” for the elderly. The president didn’t give any specifics of the plan, but a statement released by the White House reads, “A modernized, well-defined benefits package is needed to assure that health plans compete on cost and quality rather than price. Reforms should also maintain or strengthen protections for low-income beneficiaries, assure that any new cost burdens are not excessive, and assure that beneficiaries have access to a viable traditional Medicare program.”
Rising prices for prescription drugs are putting a number of elderly citizens at risk of not being able to afford them. “Seniors in America [are] still making a choice between the food they eat and the drugs they need,” Clinton said. Savings from making Medicare more efficient should be used to finance a prescription drug benefit for beneficiaries, he added.
Robert Davis, a member of Ohio Council 8 in Columbus, says as a housing authority worker for 18 years, he’s personally seen the struggles of elderly people who can’t afford prescription drugs. The president is also against raising the eligibility age for Medicare to 67.
“The fastest growing group of people without health insurance are people between 55 and 65, and I can’t imagine why we would want to have more elderly people without health insurance,” he said.
SAVING SOCIAL SECURITY. Elderly, single women — who rely on Social Security more than anyone else to survive — have a poverty rate (18 percent) almost twice that of the senior population as a whole, Clinton said. They are high on his priority list for Social Security reform. Experts predict that at its current funding levels, Social Security will fall short of paying full benefits after 2032. By setting aside 62 percent of the surplus over the next 15 years, Clinton said, “We can extend the life of the trust fund to about 2050. ... If we’d invest just a small percentage of it in the stock market — just a small percentage — through a completely independent body, insulated from politics, you could put another five years on it.”
Clinton assured AFSCME members that if they support his proposals, “the best is yet to come.”
By Jimmie Turner
