“Agenda For Seniors,” by John Goodman, Forbes

Senior citizens are discriminated against by a number of unwise public policies. People on Social Security lose benefits if they earn even a modest amount of wage income. Medicare is paying doctors the way it did in the last century – long before the existence of email or iPhones. Seniors are the only people in our society who can’t have a Health Savings Account – from which to pay bills not covered by health insurance. Double taxation of senior savings is unfair. Forced withdrawal of senior citizen savings makes no economic sense. And millions of seniors lose out on Social Security and Medicare benefits they have worked and paid for because they can’t navigate the complexity of programs that are supposed to have been created for their benefit. Here is what needs to be done.”

LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform):

I learned good health policy 30 years ago from John Goodman’s book Patient Power. His ideas in this column on Social Security and Medicare are very good.