Smearing Republicans as a party hell-bent on cutting Medicare (or Social Security) benefits is a traditional election-year gambit by Democrats.
According to two esteemed University of Chicago economists, however, it is President Biden, age 80, and his far-left political organization that will reportedly cut more holes in the seniors’ safety net.
And it’s through the fundamentally misnamed Inflation Reduction Act passed on a straight-line party vote that America’s elderly population could reportedly experience the shortfall.
In particular, “Medicare’s popular drug-coverage program is headed for a painful amputation,” Casey B. Mulligan and Tomas J. Philipson wrote in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed on Monday.
The numbers-crunching associated with the legislation hardly adds up, the duo implied.
“Welcome to the fiscal and regulatory nightmare known as government-provided health care, where those writing the rules don’t understand the consequences of what they do,” they contended.
In their essay which you can review in its entirety for the full context, they outlined the specifics of a looming problem that will affect elderly voters right around the 2024 presidential election season, and “By then, America will have no doubt which party is cutting Medicare.”
Mulligan and Philipson explain, in part, the staggering costs involved:
The private plans participating in Medicare’s prescription-drug program, known as Part D, currently draw on three sources of revenue to finance prescriptions: out-of-pocket payments from patients, premium payments made by plan members, and subsidies from the federal government. In 2025, under the Inflation Reduction Act, both government subsidies and out-of-pocket payments by patients are scheduled to be cut sharply. The difference will have to be made up by premiums. But the statute inhibits this third revenue source, which is also subsidized, from increasing more than 6%. That’s hardly enough to cover inflation, let alone compensate for the other two revenue losses.
We estimate that beginning in 2025, plan subsidies—specifically, the reinsurance subsidies for the beneficiaries with the most drug spending—will be cut $30 billion…With $30 billion less to finance prescription benefits, something will have to give. Plans currently have far too little profit to span the chasm that the Inflation Reduction Act opens between expenses and revenue…Traditional Medicare members face a difficult choice in 2025: Either take drastic cuts in drug coverage, or switch to Medicare Advantage plans that cover prescriptions but may not cover the hospitals and doctors who are currently providing them care…
Without in any way minimizing this potentially serious issue for those who have medical challenges and require essential prescription pharmaceuticals, and nobody knows what’s around the corner health-wise, the impending financial scenario seems all the more reason for individuals of all age groups to prioritize physical fitness, proper diet, and key lifestyle choices as a way to perhaps minimize government dependency.
Separately, with all the self-righteous posturing by the Dems in lamenting prescription drug costs, within hours of his inauguration, Biden reversed a Trump-era executive order that was designed to lower the price of insulin.
Biden accused of playing politics by freezing Trump-era order reducing insulin costs https://t.co/3n7gzuaBpw pic.twitter.com/srzMckzRHl
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) January 23, 2021
As the COVID-19 pandemic has suggested, there seems to be a close collaboration between the left and Big Pharma — as well as corporate America in general. As the scenario has evolved over recent years, the left is corporate America.
From time to time, clueless GOP politicians foolishly play into the Democrat fear-mongering by prattling about pie-in-the-sky entitlement reform.
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