Saving Social Security and Medicare by Ardon Schambers

Is anyone looking out for your welfare?  We know the folks in Washington and Lansing seem to have trouble making good decisions. A recent story regarding the AARP has caught my attention and makes me wonder if we have another institution that has their own agenda and not necessarily the interests of its membership in mind.

With the big fight last year about the federal budget, we saw that one of the options discussed were cutbacks in Medicare & Social Security.  You may recall the head of AARP saying he might be able to support the idea.  Well after the dust settled, he was gone. So you might think it is a dead issue. Now it seems that AARP has a new initiative which involves a lot of meetings and options for its members to express their opinion on the matter.  Sounds like a good plan. However, it strikes me as a lot of smoke & mirrors to cover moving in a direction they probably already have established.

What is the real plan?

You have to be pretty naive to think the membership of AARP is interested in how to reduce their benefits. They want what they have, if not more, and they want it safeguarded. A national campaign of “listening” is not needed to establish the position of the AARP membership.  The leadership needs to present a menu of options for securing the benefits of SS & Medicare and then ask people which choices they like best.  Here is an example . . . (I’m sure the experts at AARP  and the Congress ought to be able to do as well) -

Options to Consider for Medicare

1. Change Medicare benefit coverages to lower cost solutions, but with higher coverage allowance.  Establish the formula so that total outlay is less than the current plan.  A 10% saving would be a big deal for everyone.
   
2. Make lower cost solutions and reimbursements easier to process for both patient and provider.  The provider could save on administration and be the advocate to the patient.
   
3. Make Medicare payments for services available in foreign countries.  Use a lower payment schedule, and easy reimbursement methods to certified service providers. It protects the patient and would take advantage of low cost operating systems, a double savings.

Options to Consider for Social Security

1. Employers who are convicted of hiring 'illegal immigrants’'' could be assessed a premium of 1% on the employers contribution to Social Security for 2 years for all legitimate employees.
   
2. Allow employees to contribute an extra 1% to their account above required amounts to be invested in government securities with a return of 75% of the going rate on such securities in the international market.  It then becomes a low cost option for the government and makes us less dependent on foreign investment. The employee increases their retirement benefits with deferred taxable interest, or non-taxable income.

Get your Thinking Cap on!

Just think, all of these options could be presented for consideration with no reduction to benefits. How about this for an AARP strategy?

To learn about AARP’s campaign and see the TV ad, visit www.aarp.org/protectseniors.

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