Retirees agree: 5 things need to happen to bolster Social Security and Medicare
These areas could potentially be used as a legislative roadmap toward greater retirement security, says Senior Citizens League policy analyst.
Despite the sharp partisan divide in Washington, two surveys by the Senior Citizens League found broad agreement on several proposals that would bolster Social Security and Medicare.
“There are more areas of agreement from retirees of different political persuasions than many might believe,” said Mary Johnson, a Social Security and Medicare policy analyst for the Senior Citizens League.
The Government Accountability Office estimated that about 48 percent of households headed by people ages 55 and over had no retirement savings. This situation has been made even worse in 2020 and 2021 as older workers have lost jobs or seen their work schedules reduced because of the pandemic.
“The question becomes how we can strengthen the retirement security of today’s retirees while strengthening funding for both Medicare and Social Security at the same time,” Johnson said.
The top five areas of consensus about proposed solutions:
1. Drug prices. Congress should allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices by tying U.S. prices to those paid in other industrialized countries where prices are lower (85 percent support, 13 percent not sure and 3 percent oppose).
2. Drug price increases. Congress should restrict prescription drug price increases to no more than the rate of inflation (83 percent support, 13 percent not sure and 5 percent oppose).
3. Health care fees. Congress should require health-care providers and insurers to accept fees no more than 20 percent higher than Medicare-approved fees as settlement (82 percent support, 15 percent not sure and 4 percent oppose). Legislation passed in December would provide relief from surprise medical bills but stopped short of tying payments to prices paid by Medicare and Medicaid.
4. Social Security benefits. Congress should strengthen Social Security benefits by boosting benefits by about 2 percent (about $30 on average) and tie the annual cost-of-living adjustment to the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly, which in most years would yield a modestly higher COLA (83 percent support, 12 percent not sure and 5 percent oppose).
5. Social Security payroll taxes. Congress should change the law to apply the Social Security payroll tax to all earnings instead of the first $142,800 to strengthen program funding (72 percent support, 19 percent oppose and 9 percent favor other types of revenue increases).
“Even though our new Congress may remain divided, these five areas of broad agreement could be potentially used as a legislative roadmap that would provide greater retirement security and reduce needlessly high Medicare costs,” Johnson said.
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