Behind all of the political posturing around sustaining the program is a cold, hard fact — the program's trust fund is expected to go bankrupt as soon as 2028. To prevent that from happening, lawmakers have three options: raise taxes, cut benefits, or cut payments to the health care industry.House Republicans' statements on Medicare have been carefully worded, and notably don't say that the program shouldn't be touched.
That leaves payment reductions as the most politically tolerable solution, if they put forward any policy solutions at all. The first claws back billions of dollars in overpayments made to insurers for administering private Medicare plans over the last few years. The second, which was proposed earlier this month and has not been finalized, would decrease payments to Medicare Advantage plans by more than 2% next year, insurers say.
But popular spending reduction proposals target them too, and hospitals argue that now is not the time to talk about cutting their pay.
This country is overpaying for healthcare. Something will have to give and cuts to payments to middlemen, who are paid but provide no healthcare, makes sense as a step towards fixing the problems.
All the money in healthcare goes to the guys in suits…it’s sad