Thread: Senator warns against simultaneous overhaul of Medicare and Obamacare

Thu Dec 1, 2016 | 5:51pm EST

Senator warns against simultaneous overhaul of Medicare and Obamacare

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) speaks during the Reuters Washington Summit in Washington November 9, 2011. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst


By Susan Cornwell | WASHINGTON

A senior U.S. Senate Republican warned his party on Thursday against simultaneously overhauling Medicare and the Obamacare health insurance program, saying this would be "biting off more than you can chew."

The cautionary comments from Senator Lamar Alexander came after House Speaker Paul Ryan, long an advocate of privatize Medicare, said Republican lawmakers would be discussing reforms of the health insurance program for the elderly with President-elect Donald Trump's administration.

Republicans won the White House as well as keeping their majorities in both houses of Congress in elections last month, and are now busy preparing an agenda for next year after the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3 and Trump takes office Jan. 20.

"Well, of course it’s up to the speaker and Senator (Mitch) McConnell (the majority leader) what our agenda is, but my advice to them would be, save Medicare for another day," Alexander, chairman of the Senate's health, education, labor and pensions committee, told reporters in a Capitol hallway.

Medicare serves more than 50 million Americans who are elderly or disabled. More than one-third of them are in Medicare Advantage plans run by private insurers like UnitedHealth Group Inc. The balance receive medical benefits directly from Medicare on a traditional fee-for-service basis.

The government has been trying to cut spending on the program, which rises each year with the cost of medical services and drugs.

"We want to begin immediately to repeal Obamacare," Alexander said. "Trying to deal with the solvency issues in Medicare at the same time falls into the category of biting off more than you can chew ... a little humility here would be in order, we can’t do everything at once and we shouldn’t try."

Ryan earlier Thursday said that Medicare was on a path to going bankrupt around 2028, and needed reform, a repeat of his long-standing stance. He wants to convert the fee-for-service program into a system of subsidies for seniors, to buy coverage from private insurers or a scaled-back Medicare.

Democrats including Senator Chuck Schumer have seized on the fact that Trump's nominee to head the Health and Human Services department - Representative Tom Price - supports major changes to Medicare, to warn Republicans against privatizing the program.

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Alexander also said that while Republicans will move quickly to repeal Obamacare, the repeal probably would not take effect for two or three years, during which time lawmakers can work on a replacement plan.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-us...KBN13Q5X1?il=0

I would agree with this. Ryan tends to be too big for his britches. Entitlement reform, yes; sweeping systemic changes would get the GOP voted out in a hurry.

Lamar Alexander is exactly right. Leave Medicare alone. Paul Ryan couldn't figure out a better plan for Seniors than Medicare if his life depended on it. Trump said we are not messing with Medicare. Seniors don't want you messing with Medicare. If Medicare needs more money then raise the payroll rate. You haven't raised the payroll rates on SS since 1990 , 26 years ago, and the last Medicare payroll tax rate increase was in 1986, 30 years ago. No wonder you think it's going broke, you're trying to break it.

No increase in Medicare payroll tax rate in 30 years??!!!!

No increase in SS payroll tax rate in 26 years??!!!!!

RAISE THE GAWD DAMN RATES YOU MORONS!!!

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/sites...historical.pdf

I'm not sure Medicare needs 'overhauling' - just stop the fraud and gouging.

Just some oversight would go a long way.

Yes, it is deplorable just how many professions and individuals will game a government funded system. But this can be corrected without shelving the whole deal.

I see this Cabinet picking process as a means for some very standard Republican party ideas to resurface, after having been shut out for eight years. But they tend to forget that Trump doesn't even have a majority vote among US voters and that Dems practically control the media and will be able to spin shortcomings to the detriment of conservatives.

Trump is supposed to be a populist, so I hope that the practical outworking of his Administration's policies will not be too extreme. And Paul Ryan really tends to be an ideologue when it comes to entitlement reform; I just signed a petition to oust him---maybe they should get someone who is not a young (Republican) turk.

Paul Ryan couldn't figure out a better plan for Seniors than Medicare if his life depended on it.

Yes, I totally agree. Paul Ryan could easily lop off about 20 percent of the GOP base if he gets his way. The other path is to do piecemeal---but highly justified---entitlement reforms and plug up the corruption, and also get working age Americans back onto the payrolls so that they are not having to claim disability or Medicaid. It's not just national reform---this has to work at the state level so that whatever entitlements we do end up keeping are not such a huge overall burden.

SS and Medicare are not burdens on anyone. They've survived without a rate increase for 30 years, so they're working just fine. SSA is the best agency in the entire country.

Medicaid on the otherhand is a disaster. Way too many people on Medicaid who shouldn't be from illegal aliens and immigrants to American Poor. Illegal aliens need to be deported, the flow of legal immigrants needs to be stopped and Americans need to go to work.

Ryan is actually stupid. Otherwise he would already know this. He wants to legalize illegal aliens while cutting benefits for our Senior Citizen Americans. The man is a disgusting traitor.

Stop the waste, fraud and abuse.

Cut off benefits to illegals and Cuban's. End the Cuban Adjustment Act on Day One. Many people on disability who should not be and need to be investigated.

Yes, it's even possible that we don't even need payroll tax rate increases if we get illegal aliens off the system and yes that includes their "anchor babies". And of course waste, fraud and abuse in any agency needs to be watched closely, corrected and the problems resolved and the money recouped. The less illegal aliens and foreign population we have dipping into the till the better. Illegal aliens must be deported families intact, no child "citizen" or otherwise left behind and we must have an immediate 10 to 20 Year Moratorium on All Immigration. There is no option to this "pause", a full and complete "pause". Visitors fine, tourists fine, business people coming in on temporary visas for days, weeks or months, but less than a year, fine, but nothing else and none of them can be paid by US companies, they need to be paid by companies in their home country and they can not sign up or participate in SS and Medicare, etc.

Americans must wake up and get smart.

Now you are talking.

I am just amazed how we reached this point.

When did it become a bad thing to want your country to survive and prosper for your offsprings?

Where did we get the notion that everyone deserves to come to this country?

How in the world did we allow companies to legally import workers to replace Americans. You can read anything, but I read MacDonald's wants to import workers. I would have thought our government had imported enough illegals for them.