John B. Breaux: “There is no easy answer to this problem. Everybody wants us to fix Medicare, but nobody wants us to do anything in order…”

“There is no easy answer to this problem. Everybody wants us to fix Medicare, but nobody wants us to do anything in order to fix it. When you say, ``Do you want to increase premiums,'' everybody says no. When you say, ``Do you want to reduce benefits,'' everybody says no. When you say, ``Do you want to reduce payments of doctors and hospitals,'' they say no because they may not serve us any more. When we say, let's gradually, by the year 2027, forewarn people that that will be the eligible age of Medicare, we are now saying do not do that, either. The fact is that in the year 2001 Medicare becomes insolvent. What are we going to tell the people then? Are we going to say we did not have the political courage to do anything, so there is no more Medicare available for anybody, regardless of age? That is what is facing us now. This is probably one of the easiest steps toward ensuring that Medicare will be solvent. There are no easy answers, and I suggest that this is one of the easier ones. If we do not have the political courage to do this, how are we going to handle the question about what happens when there is no more Medicare available for anyone? I think this ought to be adopted.”