Wonk Room » Betsy McCaughey: Medicare Can Save Money By Cutting Americans Aged 65 To 69 From Program

Betsy McCaughey: Medicare Can Save Money By Cutting Americans Aged 65 To 69 From Program

By Igor Volsky on Aug 31st, 2009 at 12:19 pm

Betsy McCaughey: Medicare Can Save Money By Cutting Americans Aged 65 To 69 From Program

This morning, during an interview with WNYC’s Brian Lehrer, health care provocateur Betsy McCaughey suggested that policy makers could slow Medicare spending without cutting $500 billion from Medicare and Medicaid over 10 years and “denying care to the elderly.”

Instead, the author of the “death panels” charge, suggested that policy makers should cut Americans aged 65 to 69 from the program:

The fact is that if Medicare inched up the eligibility age one month a year, until 2043 when it reached age 70, Medicare would be solvent. And that is what the Congress should do and that is what the Congressional Budget Office has urged Congress to do every year. That would solve the problem without telling elderly people that they have to suffer with crippling arthritis rather than get a knee replacement.

Listen:

Despite McCaughey’s claim, the Congressional Budget Office does not “urge” Congress to raise Medicare’s eligibility age “every year.” The CBO merely includes the policy as one of “115 options for reducing (or, in some cases, increasing) federal spending on health care, altering federal health care programs, and making substantive changes to the nation’s health insurance system.”

To put the debate in terms McCaughey can understand, page 51 (37 in print version) of “CBO’s Budget Options Volume 1” says that death paneling Americans 65 to 69 years old from the Medicare system would have little effect on the trajectory of Medicare’s long-term spending. First, the option would require Medicare to “inch up” the eligibility age by two month every year, not one. And, since “younger beneficiaries are healthier and thus less costly than the program’s average beneficiary,” “outlays for Medicare would [still] rise to 7.7 percent of GDP by 2050.”

What’s more, “increasing the age of eligibility for Medicare would shift costs that are now paid by that program to individuals and to employers that offered health insurance to their retirees. Those higher costs might lead more employers to reduce or eliminate such coverage.” Uninsured 65 to 69 year olds would enter the Medicare program in worse health, only increasing Medicare’s costs.

Comments
4

4 Responses to “Betsy McCaughey: Medicare Can Save Money By Cutting Americans Aged 65 To 69 From Program”

LL Says:

Sickness speculators like Ms. McCaughey don’t want Medicare to buy prescription drugs in bulk, because they care more about their portfolio than the right to life.
August 31st, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Jack Foster Says:

Branding someone as “health care provacateur” and author of the “death panels” are false labels and hardly advance this discussion. Why not listen to and consider other views?
September 1st, 2009 at 11:51 am
dale coberly Says:

well, jack

and anyone else who needs to hear

cutting medicare for those age 65 to 69 would destroy the whole purpose of Medicare. and just WHOSE money would you be saving?

Can you understand the point of insurance? People put aside a little money while they are working in order to pay for the medical care they might need after they have retired. If the cost of that medical care is likely to go up, the answer is to increase the premium.

The reason for not listening to Ms McCaughey is that she is an idiot… or someone who thinks you can be played for a fool.
September 1st, 2009 at 1:01 pm
dale coberly Says:

you see, the point here is that “Medicare” should be solvent.

After all, Mr Medicare needs the money. And the best way to be sure his money stays in the bank is to not spend any of it on the medical needs of the elderly.

Even if that’s what the elderly paid their taxes for. You see, the whole point is not force “the young” to pay taxes for Mr Medicare, even though they will want the medical care when they become “the old.”

Shhh. Wouldn’t want to spoil their fabulous youth with the thought that some day they are going to be old and wish they had paid for Medicare when they had the chance.

Am I being too subtle here? Is it really possible that Ms McCaughey is relying on the people being too stupid to figure out the connection between their Medicare tax and their eventual need for Medicare? Her suggestion amounts to noticing that the price of food is going up, so the only way to keep Mr Food Budget solvent is to not eat anything on Saturdays.
September 1st, 2009 at 3:08 pm