Editorials

It's time for a serious debate about Medicare

TBO.com
Published: August 30, 2012

Orlando Sentinel on the campaign Medicare debate:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's pick of Paul Ryan as his running mate has locked up a spot for Medicare among the top issues in this year's campaign.

Good. A serious national debate over the program's future is overdue.

Medicare provided health care last year for more than 40 million seniors and more than 8 million people with disabilities. Its $560 billion budget made it the third most expensive federal program.

And Medicare spending is galloping ahead of the rest of the budget. Its share of federal outlays has roughly quadrupled since 1970. …

Ryan's entry in the campaign has thrown a spotlight on Medicare because of the plan he crafted as House Budget Committee chairman. Under that plan, Americans who become eligible for the program starting in 2022 would be given a set amount of money to pay for private insurance or traditional Medicare.

Democrats and some independent budget analysts say the plan would leave seniors paying thousands more dollars a year out of pocket for their health care, but Republicans say more private sector competition would finally put the brakes on rising costs.

President Barack Obama's rival plan for Medicare, called for under his 2010 health-reform law, will reduce cost growth in the program by about $700 billion over the next decade by paring payments to health insurers and providers. Republican charges that the president is "cutting" Medicare are misleading; the program's overall budget will keep going up, and some of the savings are already paying for additional benefits for seniors.

But Democrats who have been hammering on Ryan's plan are often guilty of their own misdirection, leading their audiences to believe his plan would apply to today's seniors, instead of those eligible for the program in a decade. And it's hard to get most of the critics to concede that Medicare's cost is on an unsustainable trajectory.

Here's hoping both sides will do a better job of leveling with the American people about Medicare in the remaining weeks of the campaign.

And here's hoping Floridians will be paying close attention — not just the 3.4 million who are beneficiaries of Medicare now, but the millions more who are counting on a strong yet financially sustainable program in the future.