Pressure for Entitlement Cuts Is on Medicare, Medicaid

Excerpt from: Bloomberg Businessweek (click for full article)

 

Democrats say Social Security is off the table. So if Republicans are successful in pushing for changes to entitlement programs in U.S. budget talks, the pressure for cuts will be on Medicare and Medicaid.

Republicans propose raising the Medicare eligibility age. Other options for squeezing money out of the health care program for the elderly include additional co-payments and an increase in premiums paid by high-income recipients. In February, President Barack Obama proposed saving about $70 billion over 10 years by revising the formula for federal matching of state Medicaid expenditures, along with other changes.

“There are things that we can do with entitlements that don’t hurt beneficiaries,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, told reporters in Washington yesterday without giving specifics.