AARP to Congress: Protect Medicare’s Financial Health

En español | AARP wrote to the U.S. Senate Budget Committee last week calling on lawmakers to adopt responsible reforms to shore up Medicare’s finances for the future.

In a statement submitted Sept. 27 ahead of a hearing on Medicare financing, we urged lawmakers to work together on policies that “maximize the value of every dollar spent” and prevent “simply shifting costs onto current and future Medicare beneficiaries.”

Although the financial health of the trust fund that helps pay for inpatient hospital care for Medicare enrollees has improved this year, it could run short of money by 2031, according to a 2023 report from the trustees who oversee Medicare’s finances.

That means Medicare would no longer be able to fully pay for all of the services financed by Part A, which covers hospital care and other services.

To improve the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund, AARP recommends:

• Fully implementing pricing reforms contained in last year's historic prescription drug law, as well as adopting new reforms, which would save the Medicare program billions of dollars each year
  
• Continuing to test and implement alternative payment models, which can lower costs and improve patient care

• Addressing excess payments to private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans by passing policies to bring payments more in line with original Medicare costs

• Revisiting policies to raise new revenue for Medicare or redirect it from other sources

“Medicare must remain a strong, broadly supported social insurance program so that it can continue to provide critically needed benefits to protect current and future generations,” AARP told the committee.

Read our statement and learn more about how AARP is fighting to protect and improve Medicare.