4 Ideas for Boosting Social Security, Medicare Solvency

So there are folks getting windfall returns from the system when actually they are … flitting in and out of workforce earning a lot of money for the brief years they are in. So by pulling back on some of those unintended regressive income distributions, we can improve work incentives and program finances at the same time.

Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

We should do it primarily on the revenue side. … When you ask workers and beneficiaries “how would you like to fix Social Security’s financing problems?’” people overwhelmingly answer they would rather pay more than have their benefits cut.

… The long-term solvency gap for Social Security is about 3.5% of payroll, and that’s a manageable amount of money. There are plenty of options on the revenue side … ways we can update the system to [provide] revenues for the Social Security system. They can account for these major [work structure] changes in the last generation. And we can just ask workers to pay a little more each paycheck so they can be given benefits they’ve been promised.

Jeannie Fuglesten Biniek, senior policy analyst, Kaiser Family Foundation:

I’d like to discuss how we pay for Medicare Advantage plans [such as] how we set benchmarks, what the role of the quality bonus is, and what we expect of Medicare Advantage plans, and the information they provide back about how they are functioning. [This should include] complete encounter data, data on extra benefits that people are actually using and also appeals and denials.

In some of the cases, information is available but is incredibly difficult to pull for people to make informed choices, or to consider when making a decision. [On] revenue and spending [regarding Social Security], we’re going to have to have some combination. There’s definitely not one solution.

Brian Miller, assistant professor of medicine, Johns Hopkins University:

I agree that Medicare Advantage plans’ benchmark policy needs to be addressed. My No. 1 solution would be implementing competitive bidding for the Medicare program. We would want all plans to compete, MA plans and fee-for-service included.