Weekly Opinion Editorial

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM!
by Steve Fair

Last week, U.S. Senators Tom Coburn, (R-Oklahoma), and Joe Lieberman, (I-Connecticut) unveiled a plan to save Medicare. It calls for higher premiums, an increase in the eligibility age from 65 to 67 and other measures to cut $600 billion from projected Medicare spending.
*****
The plan extends the solvency of Medicare Part A (Hospital Insurance) by allocating half of the savings from the proposal to the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund. It also reduces Medicare’s 75-year unfunded liabilities by an estimated $10 trillion and significantly reduces the fiscal impact of Medicare Part B and Medicare Part D on the federal budget.
*****
For the first time in the history of the Medicare program, the proposal will provide seniors with an annual out-of-pocket-maximum benefit within the Medicare program to protect them from bankruptcy in the event of a major illness or long term health condition.
*****
It also contains a three year fix to the Medicare physician reimbursement formula that is paid for and will bring stability and payments to the Medicare provider system, ensuring access for seniors.
*****
“We can't save Medicare as we know it,” Lieberman said at a news conference. “We can only save Medicare if we change it.”
*****
Acknowledging the tricky politics surrounding entitlement programs, Coburn said, “Nobody's going to like this plan; we understand that.” He said, though, that the need to take immediate action overrode the politics of the issue.
*****
Coburn estimates that twenty(20) percent of taxpayer dollars spent on Medicare is fraud. "If you look at Medicare and Medicaid, both vital programs today, they're highly inefficient. Medicare has at least $80 billion worth of fraud a year. That's a full 20 percent of every dollar that's spent on Medicare going to fraud. And Medicaid is not much better. We don't actually have the numbers because half the states aren't reporting their Medicaid fraud. So when you have programs that are designed to be defrauded, even though they're well-intended and they are helping people, we ought to think about how do we get better value for that money and less money going out the door. "
*****
Two weeks ago, Coburn and Senator Tom Carper, (D- Deleware) introduced bipartisan legislation to combat and reduce waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid. The Medicare and Medicaid Fighting Fraud and Abuse to Save Taxpayer Dollars Act (S.1251), also known as the FAST Act, would address a set of problems that leads to tens of billions of dollars lost to waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid every year.
*****
According to the Milliman Medical Index(http://insight.milliman.com/article.php?cntid=7628), the typical American family of four will spend $16,700 on health care this year. Americans spent over 2.3 trillion on health care in 2010- 17% of our total Gross Domestic Product. Health care costs are rising at a rate of eight(8) percent per year and have doubled in the last nine years.
*****
Coburn is not afraid to deal with the hard issues. Most of the politicos in Washington will not address the elephant in the room. They know neither Medicare and Social Security are not sustainable in their current structure, but are unwilling to take the political risk to reform them. Coburn is the exception to the rule and is the conscience of the Senate when it comes to out of control spending.
*****
During his keynote speech at the annual Stephens County GOP Fish Fry in May, Dr. Coburn said the most pressing issue in America is the politicians in Washington’s unwillingness to address out of control government spending. Coburn had just left the ‘Gang of Six’ and was frustrated with their unwillingness to make the deep cuts necessary to keep America from going broke.
*****
In an interview with the Free Republic, (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2722999/posts) Dr. Coburn said,“You have politics being played ahead of the good best interests of the country. I mean, this shouldn't be a Democrat/Republican thing. Our problems are urgent, they're immediate and they're severe, and lack of action's going to make the difficulty in solving them even greater.”
*****
On September 18, 2007, computer science professor Randy Pausch stepped in front of an audience of 400 people at Carnegie Mellon University to deliver a last lecture. Randy told his audience about the cancer that was devouring his pancreas and would claim his life in a matter of months. Millions have viewed Pausch’s ‘last lecture.’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo) Pausch said, "When there’s an elephant in the room introduce him."
*****
Unlike most politicians, Coburn refuses to ignore a huge smelly mammal in the room. Americans should be thankful for his courage and conviction.