President Obama unveils populist budget

[jtown1123]

61. Here this might help:

From Kaiser:
The income thresholds for the higher income Part B and D premiums in
2035 are equivalent to about $47,000 for individuals and $94,000 for couples in today’s inflation-adjusted dollars.

http://www.kff.org/medicare/upload/8276.pdf

25% of Medicare beneficiaries fit the above definition of "higher income." Since so few seniors are traditionally wealthy, they would have to dip down to this 25% threshold to produce any meaningful savings from means testing, which is incredibly problematic. Medicare has no income tax cap, unlike Social Security, so these people have been contributing the max amount to Medicare their entire lives, then they cut their benefits, which doesn't seem fair. Medicare is already means tested on top of all this. I don't think we should keep tapping seniors like an ATM every time we need more revenue.

Obviously, this budget is not going to be passed, but I wanted to make the point that means testing Medicare is not the answer to our debt and deficit issues. We need to continue the ACA and keep building on ways to keep the costs of all health care down.