Deciphering the Left’s Medicare Playbook

Kathryn Nix / June 07, 2011

It’s a simple fact: You can’t sustain Medicare unless you transform the current—and unaffordable—system. But the left continues to falsely decry conservatives’ plans to achieve this, accusing them of plotting to end the program altogether. It’s ironic, then, that the left has diligently pursued a strategy of its own to “end Medicare as we know it.” That strategy boils down to this:

Downplay the problem. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Hiltzik claims, “One of the basic flaws of Ryan’s plan is that he folds Medicare’s long-term fiscal problem into the near-term problem of the federal deficit.” According to Hiltzik, “Medicare’s ills are wholly separate” from the need for deficit reduction.

Recent deficits are largely attributable to the economic recession and its effect on federal revenues. But while economic recovery will restore revenues to roughly their historical average, deficits will continue to grow as a result of runaway spending on entitlement programs. Currently, Medicare’s Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund is in deficit. The Medicare Trustees reported that the red ink amounted to $32 billion in 2010 and will reach $34 billion this year. Due to the combined effects of an aging population and rising health care costs, there is no end in sight for the program’s deficits. Getting the federal budget under control can’t be done without serious restraint on the growth of Medicare spending. (more…)