Mark Neumann: “the Medicare trustees released their report last week and issued a warning that the Medicare System will be bankrupt in…”

“the Medicare trustees released their report last week and issued a warning that the Medicare System will be bankrupt in 4 years. When I tell seniors back in my district of that and when I tell my own mom and dad of this, they ask me, how can this be? They say, my husband and I contributed into the system every year since 1965. How could the system be going bankrupt? Perhaps the best response would be that you should ask those who created the system why they created a system that has brought us to this point. But that aside, the answer lies in the fact that Medicare is a pay-as-you-go system. Your contributions do not go into a fund for your use. The contributions you made during your working years go to support those who are ahead of you, those who have already retired. When you retire, money from the current workers, not money from your contributions, will pay your benefits. So where do we go from here? We need to sit down and in a bipartisan manner decide how to reform the system and make it solvent. There is no other choice for our seniors in America today.”