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AARP AARP States New Hampshire Advocacy

Medicare Vouchers: A Bad Idea for Granite Staters

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AARP New Hampshire State Director Todd Fahey highlights why Medicare vouchers are not the right fix.  Here's why:

Proposals to turn Medicare into a voucher system would take health care in precisely the wrong direction – pushing up costs for current and future retirees -- and eroding protections that Americans have earned through many years of hard work and taxes.  Yet, in a short-sighted attempt to save money, vouchers are being promoted on Capitol Hill as an answer to rising costs.  Vouchers are the wrong answer.  There are better ways to strengthen Medicare.

Vouchers pose troubling risks for the 18% (or 244,859) of New Hampshire residents who are currently in Medicare, not to mention the 24% (or 313,359) age 50 and older who will enter the program in the next 15 years. Fortunately, President Trump has promised to protect Medicare and Social Security.  At one point, he told older voters:  “I am going to protect and save your Social Security and your Medicare. You made a deal a long time ago.”

Congress needs to follow the President’s lead. Vouchers would break a basic promise of Medicare, which is to provide a guaranteed benefit package.  This is the deal President Trump pledged to protect and save. Under a voucher system -- sometimes called premium support -- this deal and its basic promise could be tossed aside. Instead, consumers would get a fixed dollar amount to help pay for care in the private marketplace.  And if that amount turns out to be insufficient, then tough luck. Seniors and future retirees would have to pay thousands of dollars out of their own pockets at a time when they can least afford it.

In New Hampshire, residents in poor health would quickly feel the pain of a voucher system. This includes the 31% with two or three chronic health conditions who rely on receiving care they can afford.  Many with limited resources could end up in health plans that limit their choice of doctors and demand high out-of-pocket spending to get needed care. Nationally, one in four Medicare beneficiaries has incomes below $14,350, and one in two have incomes below $24,150.

Even in the wealthy Granite State, the median personal income for Medicare recipients age 65 and older was just $24,300.  And 8% of this group is already living below the federal poverty level.  Raising this group’s health care costs could be disastrous, forcing many to choose between going to the doctor and paying for other necessities.

The risks posed by a voucher proposal go against President Trump’s commitment to protect Medicare. Older voters helped decide the election and they’re counting on Congress to abandon this proposal to avoid its obvious risks. These risks are widely recognized.  Studies by the Congressional Budget Office and Medicare Payment Advisory Commission suggest that moving to vouchers could hit most Medicare beneficiaries in the pocketbook.

Medicare does need to be strengthened for future generations.  But shifting costs (even incrementally and over time) to seniors and workers who’ve paid into the system their entire working lives is the wrong approach. We can put Medicare on stable ground with commonsense solutions:  clamping down on drug companies' high prices; improving coordination of care and use of technology; and cutting over-testing, waste and fraud.

AARP is committed to working with elected officials of both parties to ensure that Medicare remains financially stable. But solutions must be responsible. On behalf of our nearly 233,000 members in New Hampshire and 38 million nationwide, AARP will continue to champion a Medicare system that delivers on the deal Americans have counted on and that they deserve.

If you share AARP’s opposition to vouchers in Medicare, we encourage you to contact your members of Congress.  Please make your voice heard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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