Helaine I. Fingold, a Senior Counsel in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Baltimore office, and Lesley Yeung, an Associate in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, authored an article in the Bloomberg BNA Health Law Reporter, titled “Medicare and Social Security Reform—Over 60 Million Beneficiaries Are Likely to Say ‘No.’”
Following is an excerpt (see below to download the full article in PDF format):
Concerns about the political future of the Medicare and Social Security benefit programs have become prevalent in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential campaign and election.
While President-elect Donald Trump did not campaign on a platform of repealing or restructuring either Medicare or Social Security, other leading Republicans are expressing renewed interest in such efforts. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in particular, has pushed for privatization of both programs.
Since Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress, Ryan has added Medicare reform to his long desired effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Others who are advising and have been named as cabinet picks of the president-elect also support Medicare and Social Security privatization efforts. What is the likelihood that one or both of these programs will be privatized or disappear altogether? Based on the experience of past reform efforts as well as the ongoing growth in Medicare eligibles, it is highly unlikely that repeal or privatization could succeed.