I notice that any of us who are concerned at all the compromises going on with Social Security and Medicare are told not to worry, that President Obama won't go there. That is not a true statement, he already has gone there.
Part of the debt deal is the commission that meets in November. Once again Medicare and Social Security will be put on the table for negotiations with right wing extremists.
I am using 3 sources so it won't be said I am making stuff up. Elderly lives are at stake, and it is necessary to question why.
From Elder Law resources:
How Will the Debt-Limit Deal Affect Seniors?For Social Security, one thing the panel will undoubtedly consider changing is how the program's cost of living increase is calculated, which will result in lower benefits. Pushing back the eligibility age for future retirees could also be on the table.
Although President Obama will be pressing the joint committee to not just cut programs but to increase revenues by raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations, it is anybody's guess whether the panel's Republican members will agree to this.
"The future of the programs really hangs in the balance," said Joe Baker, president of the Medicare Rights Center, an advocacy group. "It could lead to deep cuts and irreversible changes to Medicare and Medicaid that shift costs to beneficiaries."
If the 12-member panel can't agree on a plan to pare at least $1.2 trillion from the budget -- or Congress votes down its proposal or President Obama vetoes it -- automatic spending cuts totaling that amount would kick in beginning in 2013. Medicaid, Social Security and veterans programs are among the programs that will be exempt from these mandatory cuts, but Medicare is not exempt. There would be a 2 percent cut to Medicare, although the savings would have to come from payments to providers like doctors and hospitals, not from beneficiaries. Such a reduction to providers would be on top of a 6 percent drop in provider payments already enacted to help finance health care reform. Doctors and hospitals would feel the impact initially, but Medicare beneficiaries would experience it soon enough as more providers refuse to treat Medicare patients, reduce services or go out of business.
There is, however, a strong incentive for the joint committee to avoid these automatic cuts and instead agree on a plan that Congress can pass and the President can sign: Along with the 2 percent automatic Medicare cut would be an automatic 8 percent reduction in defense spending, or nearly $500 billion. The thinking is that both Democrats and Republicans would view defense cuts of this magnitude as too damaging to their parties to contemplate.
Pitting seniors against the Pentagon? Not a fair fight. Leon Panetta has already said publicly that the
social safety net should be cut before the defense budget.That's pretty brazen, I would say.
Here is more about these benefits going on the table in November. From the Reuters blog of Mark Miller:
Social Security, Medicare dodge bullet, but cuts loomSocial Security and Medicare dodged a bullet in the debt ceiling battle, but beneficiaries still have plenty to fear from the next phase of the deficit reduction war.
..."But major benefit cuts seem likely to emerge from the second phase of this process. A 12-member Congressional committee must identify another $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, bringing the total deal to $2.4 trillion in cuts over 10 years. That group will have a November 23rd deadline to finish its work, which will then go to an up-or-down vote – no modifications allowed – by Dec. 23rd.
What’s more, if the committee cannot agree on at least $1.2 trillion in savings, or Congress rejects its findings, automatic spending cuts totaling that amount would kick in starting in 2013. Medicare would be subject to the automatic cuts, although Social Security and Medicaid would be exempt.
The author thinks the chained CPI is likely. Here are his words.
The most likely cutting tactic is the chained CPI measure of cost-of-living adjustments (COLA). This is the only way to get near-term savings from Social Security, since it reduces benefits for current retirees. By contrast, a higher retirement age would have to be phased in over many years. A chained CPI could be implemented as early as 2013. The chief actuary of the Social Security Administration estimates that the chained CPI will rise about 0.3 percentage points less per year than the inflation measure used now, the CPI-W. With compounding, that translates to a monthly benefit cut of 8.4 percent for a retiree at age 92 (calculated from age 62, the first year of eligibility), according to the National Academy of Social Insurance.
But the chained CPI wouldn’t affect only Social Security recipients – at least not if implemented as suggested by the Bowles-Simpson deficit reduction report, which suggested that it be applied to a range of federal benefit programs, and to the tax code.
We have had trouble recently getting through by phone to our medical clinic. Even the business office is difficult to reach. When I finally talked to someone, they said the clinic was dealing with Medicare benefit cuts....causing shortage of personnel.
That appears to be happening now. From Kaiser Health News:
Debt Deal Triggers Nerves In Health Industry; Providers Brace For CutsReuters: Skilled Nursing Stocks In Sick Bay On Big Medicare Cuts
Shares of skilled nursing facilities plunged on Monday, after the U.S. government announced final reimbursement rate cuts that confirmed the market's worst fears, with little reprieve in sight. On Friday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) cut 2012 payments for skilled nursing facilities by 11.1 percent, or $3.87 billion. … The U.S. government has been under pressure to cut Medicare costs — expected to nearly double in 10 years to $1.02 trillion — as it grapples with mounting federal debt. Analysts expect the industry to lobby the Congress to mitigate the loss but expect little to come out of that (Jain, 8/1).
Modern Healthcare: Deficit-Cutting Proposal Spurs Concern
Hospital advocates are concerned that the deficit-reduction proposal contained within the $2.1 trillion debt-ceiling deal that Congress will vote on imminently will target such providers for a large amount of the required savings, but they stopped short of calling for its defeat. ... The second stage of the debt deal, which directs a 12-member congressional committee to specify $1.5 trillion in cuts by Nov. 23, has caused the greatest provider concerns. Their worry stems from the plan for a "trigger" of $1.2 trillion in 10-year cuts if the committee and Congress fail to meet the initial $1.5 trillion savings goal. Those trigger cuts, according to the White House, would include up to a 2 percent cut in Medicare provider payments (Daly and Evans, 8/1).
NPR: Still To Come: The Fight Over Medicare Cuts And Tax Hikes
The rapidly rising cost of health care is expected to be a key driver of rising government spending over the next decade. (This isn't simply due to the aging of the population; health spending is growing much faster than the economy, even after adjusting for age.) CBO Medicare accounts for both the biggest share of federal health spending. It's also a very popular program, and one that's politically very difficult to cut (Goldstein, 8/1).
Many other sources at the link.
This is the first time I ever remember in my long lifeline that a Democratic administration has been instrumental in putting these senior safety nets on the table. I know that President Obama did say recently that Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit. However it is going back on the table in November, and many of us are very worried.
Social Security is in effect already being cut, even for those of us already retired. It is not being called a cut per se. But the payroll tax cuts of 2% already in place for the employee, and the cuts recommended by the president of 2% for employers....are going to damage benefits.
Payroll tax cuts will harm those already on Social Security.Make no mistake: This is a bipartisan effort. It started back in December, when President Obama capitulated to the GOP on a budget deal by cutting the payroll tax, which funds Social Security. Advocates for the program pointed out then the shortcomings of this approach: It was targeted inefficiently and unfairly, skewing to the upper middle class and hurting lower-income families in comparison with the Making Work Pay tax credit it replaced.
Even more troubling, it blew a hole in the financing mechanism for Social Security by reducing payroll tax revenue by roughly $110 billion for the year. It was plain then, as it is now, that once you've cut a tax, it's ever harder to restore it.
.."This time the talk is of extending the one-time-only cut for workers, whose FICA deductions dropped to 4.2% from 6.2% of covered pay, and throwing in a similar break for employers, who also pay 6.2% of covered payroll. The talk comes against the backdrop of a signal from the big retirement lobby group AARP that it would accept certain changes in Social Security, including benefit cuts. (AARP backed off, but only a bit, when its policy shift was divulged publicly Friday.)
Now that there is talk of cutting benefits to retirees in the name of cutting the deficit, then it becomes about us....the seniors.
It is not about President Obama now. It is not about whether we have a right to criticize. It is about whether we as seniors get heard. It is in fact our obligation to speak out when we think the president is wrong.
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