Posted on 06/17/2015 10:38:47 AM PDT by BradtotheBone
Republicans will risk political pushback to put entitlement programs on the agenda during the presidential election.
Some changes are in the wind for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid—entitlement programs that account for 45% of the federal government’s payouts.
Many of the changes are still years away. But some of them will start next year, smack in the middle of the presidential election campaign, forcing candidates to address issues that they and their advisers generally try to steer clear of when they’re running.
Kicking off the rare election-year debate: a move to rescue the Social Security disability fund image: http://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png before 20% cuts in monthly payments need to be made (recipients are people unable to work because of illness or injury). Congress will find a solution before money runs short in fall 2016. Tighter eligibility standards are likely to be added as a condition of more money being pumped into the fund.
A less visible change with a broader effect will come with Medicare’s emphasis on value over volume. By the end of 2016, 30% of Medicare payments to providers will be value based. By 2019, that figure will jump to 50%.
Examples of value pricing: A single price for all care that is tied to one medical event, such as heart bypass surgery. And reduced payments to hospitals that have high rates.
The shift bears watching, since Medicare is the largest health insurance provider in the United States and other insurers are generally quick to follow its lead.
(Excerpt) Read more at kiplinger.com ...
By they way, anyone who took seriously the no-tax-at-withdrawal promises on the various government IRA plans is a fool.
The fix will be to extend the payroll tax to every penny of income, blowing by the current 100K and change cap. It gets 70%+ approval in polling. The GOP will eventually cave and sign on.
“Republicans will risk political pushback to put entitlement programs on the agenda during the presidential election.”
Why bother? Even the Republican boomers won’t accept reform, so it’s a losing issue.
Neither seem to be able to hold down a job due to their "disabilities", yet they seem to have no difficulty at all pursuing extracurricular activities such as camping and yardwork.
They know how to work the system, and I'm sure they're not a rarity.
When was it, exactly, that the money that I paid in to the government with the promise of getting it back later became an ‘entitlement’?
That’s not a fix, because it still wouldn’t make the system solvent. More like a band-aid to delay the crash a little longer.
Got a neighbor like that. Doing an addition to this house by himself but can’t work due to his disability? Has handicapped tags on his vehicles, too.
Shameful and not at all rare nowadays.
The author is putting out bait (she’s posted similar items in the past) that she hopes the Republican candidates bite on so the ‘RATS and the media can crucify them leading up to the 2016 election.
No, they are not. Once "welfare reform" was passed the shyster lawyers immediately moved to push many of those into SSD($$$)...the ads were everywhere on TV...still are.
The day the program started. Maybe you didn’t read the fine print?
The government should put 5,000 dollars into a 401k for every baby born….Invested in a group of idex funds owned by the child…when the kid is 21 the government gets it 5,000 grand back and they can take it at 55 years of age…
The only candidate I can see with the backbone to speak the truth about entitlements is Ted Cruz. The rest will run for the hills.
From day one. The money you pay in goes to pay for those receiving benefits not into a account with your name on it.
Since we are having a demographics problem the number of people behind the Baby Boomers are not enough to keep the system running.
In 1960, for example, there was a 16 to 1 ratio of people paying into the system for one person receiving benefits, no it like 2 to 1 and getting worse.
Exactly. Yet so many say that and it’s NOT. We had no choice!!!! The gov. TOOK it.
I had a neighbor like that too. He could not work because he was depressed. He was depressed because he could not find a job. He could not find a job because he was too busy drinking beer and smoking dope all day. That is SSI.
Yes, we know all that. We know the hows and whys to it.
It’s still money WE HAD to give the gov.
-PJ
It’s such a joy watching him prep his motorhome (something I can’t afford, by the way), as I drive past his house on my way into WORK.
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