Medicare and SSI Necessary Changes
Posted by Moonage on 02 Sep 2004 | Tagged as: Entitlement Programs
A piece Kentm401 did on the SSI system, and the changes that he expects will have to made:
…..I agree (as an old pension actuary) the problems wrt funding does NOT lay in the SSI system, rather it rests with MCARE, an open ended “pay-go” system that is nearing deficit status sometime around 2012.
Remember, that only 2.90% of the gross “System” (15.30%) Tax contributions are funding MCARE benefits. And it’s a “separate fund” folks, and NOT actuarially PBO based nor funded. THAT’S the problem. We’re taking money out of the SSI fund, to pay for benefits under MCARE right now. And demographically, this will only get worse, as the cusp Boomers enter that system about 2013 (Note: current eligibility is 67 for those born 1946 and after).
BY the numbers, MCARE goes bust 2015, without any changes!
And takes SSI with it, around 2045. Without changes!
So “we want to fix the system”?
Fix Health Care, raise the combined Employment tax rate to 20% (10% on EE’s 10% on employers)(split 13% to OASDI & 7% MCARE), raise the NRA to 69 minimum for those born after 1969, leave the rest alone, STOP! cutting taxes on the top 2% of the tax payer brackets, Fix the Corporate Tax system - as corporations don’t pay income taxes anyway Note: WE(individuals)pay it for them, and for grins - Fix the Tax Code for ALL employers (Corporates, Sole Props, Partnerships) - who employ others, lower the aggregate tax burden on ALL employers at the same time that you raise the employment tax rates. Get both the FED current account deficit and the trade account deficit under control so that the credit markets can sustain both indefinitely and “internally” - AND we NO LONGER need to sell the “Bond debt rope” - to hang us - to foreigners to “satisfy our (the US) deficits spending binge”!
There you go, problems R fixed….LOL And it didn’t take a “commission” 200 million US$ to come up with that.
You’re welcome!
KBM (The BB - tm)
3 Comments »
on 09 Sep 2004 at 10:07 am 1.kentm401 said …
Nicked from TMF: An article from Paul Samuelson on Global Trade and the affect on Wages & Hours….
Kent
on 29 Nov 2007 at 9:10 pm 2.Darwin Corby said …
I wish some of these interesting ideas could be discussed in more detail further up the chain
on 29 Nov 2007 at 10:24 pm 3.Moonage
said …
The problem I see is in the response you gave. Not so much the content, but the timing. One response in three years is about the average interest the average person puts into pondering the changes that need to be made in order to preserve this system for our children. If the average person ignores the problems and just concerns themself about getting their share, there is no pressure on the peeps further up the chain. There is no reason for them to risk their political careers by suggesting cutting benefits or increasing taxes to pay for it.
That’s the real problem.