Medicare debate highlights competing views among young and old

The future of Medicare continues to be a hot topic in politics. The New York Times examines how the current debate over revamping the program is playing out among different age groups. And on Capitol Hill Friday, two Democratic senators urged that Medicare spending be debated independently from the current negotiations on raising the federal debt ceiling. Republicans quickly challenged that view.

The New York Times: Between Young And Old, A Political Collision
In dozens of interviews over three weeks in (Lakewood, Colo.), people talked about a collision of interests, and perhaps even more crucial, of generations. On one side are younger voters who are championing cuts in spending; on the other, older ones who want to retain the services they counted on getting when they retired. Specific government programs like Medicare are at issue. Beyond that, many people said they perceived a deeper debate about fairness, equity and — at its core — starkly different visions of the nation's future and how public resources should be allotted in a time of straitened circumstances (Johnson, 6/3).

RollCall: Harkin, Reed: Debt Limit And Medicare Don't Mix
A pair of liberal Democratic Senators maintained Friday that reforming Medicare should not be a condition of raising the debt ceiling. While Sens. Tom Harkin (Iowa) and Jack Reed (R.I.) laid down their marker, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) reiterated his call for President Barack Obama to engage in bipartisan discussions to reach a deal on the debt limit within the next month. Harkin, however, said that request was unreasonable. "Mr. Boehner says he wants to have this done by the end of this month," Harkin said. "Well, he knows as well as everyone else that reaching an adequate and bipartisan solution on Medicare is going to take weeks" (Brady and Palmer, 6/3). 

Providence Journal: Reed: Exclude Medicare Changes From Debt-Limit Talks
To use the debt-ceiling debate as "an ideological lever to erase the Medicare program is absolutely irresponsible," said Reed. He referred to the proposal by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to change Medicare into a program that gives individuals a fixed sum of money with which to help buy private medical insurance. ... Ryan's plan aside, reporters pressed Reed and Harkin, with little success, to state whether they are open to any Medicare savings — such as cuts in payments to doctors or hospitals — as part of a compromise to raise the debt limit and reduce deficit spending. The debt-ceiling talks are "not the proper arena for that kind of debate," Reed said (Mulligan, 6/4). 

The Iowa Independent: Harkin: Separate Medicare Overhaul, Debt-Ceiling Discussions
"Our message is simply: Take Medicare off the table," said Harkin. "Let's solve the default crisis, and let's talk about fixing the system so that our middle class has a little bit better shape." Medicare is, he added, a "complicated, complex topic" that deserves its own discussion (Waddington, 6/3).

The Hill: Senate Republicans Blast Dems' Call To Keep Medicare Out Of Debt-Ceiling Talks
Republicans immediately shot back Friday against Senate Democrats' call to keep Medicare reforms out of debt-ceiling talks. ... In a blast email, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's (R-Va.) office wrote that "Senate Dems Push Medicare Closer To Bankruptcy." ... Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), the top Republican on the Senate Finance panel, said much the same thing. "What is it the Washington Democrats don't understand?" Hatch said in a statement. "Medicare is the leading contributor to our nation's debt, and any attempt to confront this crisis in a meaningful way must include this broken entitlement program" (Pecquet, 6/3).

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This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.