“Social Security Debt up $6.8T,” by John C. Goodman, Goodman Institute Quote: “The Social Security Trustees just released their annual report on the system’s finances. The news is awful. Most people know that the system’s future benefit promises are greater than its future payroll tax (FICA) revenues. But how big is the difference — its fiscal gap, also called its unfunded liability? The answer – a terrifying $59.8 trillion – is buried deep in Appendix table VIF1. That’s over 2.5 times the size of the U.S. economy. Even more disturbing is the change since last year’s report. The system’s debt grew by $6.8 trillion.” LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses,
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“Long-term care’s problems are bad and getting worse — but fixable,” by Stephen A. Moses, McKnight’s LTC News Quote: “The long-term care business is hurting: labor shortages, wage pressures, vax mandates, too much Medicaid, too little private pay, value-based reimbursement, MedPAC vs. Medicare and so on and on. What should be done? Every analyst, politician and bureaucrat has a favorite solution, but none has taken hold. The problems remain, and they’re getting worse. Let’s analyze the situation. What do all of long-term care’s economic woes have in common? Answer: they persist in a market dominated by government financing and regulation.”
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“The Risk of Coverage Loss for Medicaid Beneficiaries as the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Ends,” Commonwealth Fund Quote: “States are required to keep people enrolled in Medicaid throughout the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) as a condition of receiving a temporary increase in the federal share of Medicaid costs. When the PHE ends — currently slated for December 2021, but could be extended — the enhanced federal funding will end and states will resume administering renewals for Medicaid eligibility, some of which have been pending for more than 16 months. Nearly all 80 million people enrolled in Medicaid will have their eligibility redetermined, triggering a
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