will really benefit from giving this benefit to all Medicare recipients? The answer to this question will be discussed later. But we first need to address the issue of Medicare’s projected budget shortfall.Projected Shortfall in Medicare BudgetPerhaps the biggest problem with the proposal of a new prescription-drug benefit for Medicare is the fact that Medicare is currently in a very thorny financial situation. According to official government estimates, Medicare will begin to run out of money starting at about the year 2010. That will be when the “baby boomers” begin to qualify for Medicare benefits. That is why the currently proposed addition of a prescription-drug benefit to Medicare seems so irrational. Looking toward the future, we will either need to raise taxes or cut benefits simply to keep Medicare from going broke. The question that the presidential candidates should be addressing is how the government plans to pay for Medicare as it currently exists, not whether or not we should add a costly new prescription-drug benefit. Even if taxes are raised and they find a way to pay for the prescription-drug benefit, we will still be left facing a grim future for the Medicare budget.In order to fund the proposed prescription-drug benefit to Medicare, it would become necessary to either increase taxes and redistribute this tax revenue into the Medicare budget in order to cover increased costs, or to cut back on some of the current Medicare budget. The second option seems impractical since nearly everyone agrees that it is definitely not fewer benefits, but a larger budget, that Medicare is in need of. A USA Today poll showed that voters would much rather pay higher taxes than cut benefits in order to correct for the projected deficit in the Medicare budget. Ninety-one percent of the people surveyed said that the government should do something now to prepare for this future shortfall. Fifty-six percent were ...
