Ducking the Medicare Crisis, a Bitter Pill

In his April 13, 2012 New York Times op-ed piece, Steve Rattner explains how contentious political stalemates, band-aid solutions, and convoluted arithmetic may temporarily appease political constituents but simply cannot avert the rapidly approaching Medicare crisis.

Here’s a quote from the piece, “While the Obama legislation employs cutting-edge ideas for managing Medicare’s outlays, the program can’t be saved just by squeezing reimbursement rates to hospitals, laboratories and the like. In assessing the new law, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services warned of exactly these risks.”

It should be obvious to readers that to ensure access to quality long-term care now and in the future, it will be necessary to either pay for it yourself, or own long-term care insurance.