Millions of Americans work their entire lives, paying for Medicare every day they work — starting at their first job, even as teenagers. Medicare is not just a government program. It’s the solid assurance that Americans trust will be with them when they retire.
For decades, I’ve heard my Republican friends claim that the only way to get serious about keeping Medicare is to cut benefits, including turning it into a coupon program. getting less and less valuable every year. Some have threatened our economy unless I agree to cut benefits.
Only in Washington can people claim that they are saving something by destroying it.
The budget I’m releasing this week will make the Medicare trust viable beyond 2050 without cutting a dime in benefits. In fact, we can get better value, ensuring Americans get better care than they pay for Medicare.
The two largest healthcare reform bills since the founding of Medicare, both of which will save Medicare hundreds of billions over the coming decades, were signed by President Barack Obama and me.
The Affordable Care Act includes smart reforms to make our health care system more efficient while improving Medicare coverage for seniors. Inflation Reduction Act finished an absurd ban on Medicare negotiating lower drug prices, requiring drug companies to pay Medicare discounts if they raise prices faster than inflation, and caps on the elderly’s total cost of prescription drugs – saving seniors thousands of dollars each year. These negotiations, combined with statutory rebates for excessive price increases, would reduce the deficit by 159 billion USD.
We have seen the rate of growth in spending on healthcare slow down significantly since the passage of the Affordable Care Act. In the decade after ACA, Medicare actually spent about $1 trillion less than than the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office expected before the ACA reforms were implemented. IN 2009, prior to the ACA, Medicare trustees predicted that the Medicare trust fund would be exhausted by 2017; their latest The forecast is 2028. But we should do better and expand Medicare’s ability to pay beyond 2050.
So first, let’s expand on that progress. My budget will build on drug price reform by strengthening Medicare’s newly established negotiating power, allowing Medicare to negotiate prices for more drugs and get drugs into negotiations sooner after they’ve been released. debut. That’s another $200 billion deficit reduction. We’ll then take that savings and put it straight into a Medicare trust fund. Lowering drug prices while expanding Medicare’s ability to pay would certainly make a lot more sense than cutting benefits.
Second, let’s ask the richest to pay a little more than their fair share, to bolster Medicare for all in the long run. My budget proposes to increase the Medicare tax rate on earned and unearned income over $400,000 to 5 percent from 3.8 percent. As I suggested before, my budget will also ensure that the Medicare assistance tax cannot be completely avoided. This modest increase in Medicare contributions from the top earners will help keep the Medicare program strong for decades to come. My budget will ensure money goes directly into a Medicare trust fund, protecting taxpayers’ investment and the plan’s future.
When Medicare passed, the richest 1% of Americans Are not have more than 5 times more assets than the bottom 50% combined, and it makes sense that some adjustments need to be made to reflect that reality today.
Ask them to pay their fair share so the millions of workers who helped them build that wealth can retire decently and get the Medicare they paid for. Republican plans to protect billionaires from paying an extra penny in taxes — but won’t protect a retired firefighter’s hard-earned Medicare benefits — just decouple from reality. that hardworking families are living every day.
Add all of that, and my budget will extend the Medicare trust fund to more than another generation, the ability to pay for another 25 years or so — beyond 2050. I believe the vast majority of Americans will support it.
MAGA Republicans have a different view. They want to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act. That means they want to take away the right we just gave Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices. Removed the $35 per month insulin limit we just put in place for people on Medicare. And remove the current $2,000 total annual limit for seniors.
If MAGA Republicans get their way, seniors will have to pay higher out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs and insulin, the deficit will be larger, and Medicare will be weaker. Their only planned winner would be Big Pharma. That’s not how we extend the life of Medicare for another generation or grow the economy.
This week, I’m going to show Americans my full budget vision to invest in America, reduce costs, grow the economy, and don’t raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000. I urge my Republican friends in Congress to do the same — and show the American people what they value.
